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TheOtherDave comments on How to teach to magical thinkers? - Less Wrong
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Well, I certainly agree that "cultural construct" implies (indeed, I would say it denotes) something inside people's heads. And I agree that many people believe that, or at least are in the habit of thinking as if, the contents of people's heads are somewhat arbitrary, highly malleable, and do not involve laws of nature.
I'm not sure how that relates to the "... and all cultural constructs are equally valid" clause I asked about, though.
It relates through the not involving the laws of nature part. In a certain sense cultural constructs are not real. They are imaginary. And you can think of all imaginary things as about equally valid.
I am aware of holes in that argument, but getting back to the original point, when people call something a "cultural construct" there is a pretty heavy implication that whatever the replacement for it they have in mind is going to be at least as good and probably better.
Just because something is a cultural construct, and thus "imaginary" or pethaps even subjective to some extent, does not mean it's not about reality. To think otherwise is simply a mind projection fallacy.
True, but I'd not place much trust on a map whose creators refuse to constantly check with the territory.
Mm. Yeah, I'll accept that.