Functional Explanation Again

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Mar 22 05:23:50 PST 2001


Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
> The origins of racism are probably like the origins of religion; deriving
> from deep human needs and (in the case of racism) pathologies that arise
> from people's life situations.

One of the conditions of racism is, tautologically, generically human tendencies. But as many, including Karl Marx and Kenneth Burke, have emphasized, a _tendency_ to X is _also_ a tendency _away_ from X. "Deep Human Needs" (DHNs), like Providence, explains nothing because it explains everything.

Carrol



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