Semantic
depth indicates the number of inheritance levels. Inheritance signifies the parent – child
relation where the child takes(inherits) certain attributes and qualities of
the parent. Inheritance may also signify
belonging to a class or part-whole relation.
A simple (materialistic) inheritance tree: Matter – living organism – Animal –
Mammalians - Human – Man - Ali.
Polymorphism
is handling children through their parent classes without their specific
identities. For example, you do not need
to know the specific name, Ahmet, Mehmet of the person if you are going to hand
out a leaflet to every person you see on the street.
Semantic
depth via inheritance and polymorphism brings flexibility to our actions or
action schemas in our brains.
If a
person is ‘too much’ dedicated to a certain ideology or religious belief and,
tries to view and explain everything first according to fixed reference points
his/her flexibility decreases (for good or bad). Actually getting a fixed-idee is a simple
indicator that that person may be lacking semantical depth. The semantical depth may be abstracted as
cultural depth when accumulated in many areas.
The quality
level of public discussions in Turkey may rather be an indicator of the individuals’
lack of cultural and scientific depth rather than a choice to make things
simple for the not well-educated audience.
The lack of depth leading to the lack of flexibility is notorious in the
Turkish public culture. The difficulty
to make compromises, the lack of tolerance, the difficulty to find common
grounds and make negotiation is a strong clue to the lack of cultural depth.
