Materialism of Fools [Was: Where Does Thought Come From?]

[LeoCasey at aol.com]

Carrol:
> >Susanne Langer, in _Philosophy in a New Key_ (circa 1941 -- she was a
> >follower of Whitehead and Cassirer) argued that the question as to the
> >origin of languages (at that time regarded as an illegitimate question)
> >might be answered, and she suggested that ritual preceded language, with
> >language originating then in sounds which to begin with were only
> >accompaniments to ritual. In other words, anyone who seriously starts
> >thinking about how thought begins has to find that beginning in motion
> >which was not itself thought.
> 

I am with Doug on this one: this is the materialism of fools. Anyone who can 
suggest that ritual is somehow prior to thought is only describing his own 
lack of clear and rigorous thought about the matter. If ritual refers to 
anything, it refers to the purposive repetition of action, clearly requiring 
thought. Check out an introductory anthropology text.

I know that Carrol's philosophy is generally restricted to his collected 
volumes of Lenin, Stalin and Mao, but even Mao, not exactly a great 
philosopher, answered a version of Carrol's question [where do correct ideas 
come from?] with "practice," hardly a suggestion that it came from a process 
devoid of thought, but from a process of reflection upon the actions taken on 
the basis of prior thoughts.

Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --
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