Intellects, and a bit on desire and scarcity

Rob Schaap rws at comserver.canberra.edu.au
Sat Feb 5 08:18:49 PST 2000


I've benefited from it, but I'm outa gas on this one Ken - well, one last little splutter, perhaps ...


>> Remember, it's always up for grabs (Habermas's core point), so it'll
>>chop and
>change over time.
>
>For Habermas, the content is always up for grabs - not the *form* of
>rationality.

The form strikes me as logically immanent in democracy. Its essence, even.


>> Epistemologies produce ontologies and ontologies produce epistemologies -
>this stuff changes over time, too - coz it's part of the above, no?
>
>The idea of an ontology that changes over time doesn't make much sense to
>me.
>As far as I can see, historical contingency is the only ontology that makes
>sense (Zizek) or, as Adorno puts it, dialectics is the ontology of a wrong
>state of affairs.

Didn't Jameson say something like 'Historicise everything: the one transhistorical imperative!'? I think Roderick said something like 'why not historicise Habermas?'. I can handle the idea of historically contingent metaphysical truths - it just means that, when it comes to the practical business of living, you have to treat some stuff as 'Big T' True. So, currently being alive, I do. So do you.

Maybe this cop-out is more congenial to the likes of me than it is to a religionist. Anyway, at some stage we have to stop sharpening the theoretical axe, and get the firewood in, eh?

G'night, mate. Rob.



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