----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Brown" <CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us>
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Nah. More like striking a different path from reductionism and monism and 'the one true theory of reality and society.'
Ian
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CB: What you say is consistent with what I say in part. Kantianism
is dualism, so the postmods moving to dualism is indeed a different
path from monism. "Reductionism" is merely a pejorative for
"materialism" in this case.
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Well that's because interpreters of Kant used dualism when they should have said anti-reductionism. Perhaps someone on the list more familiar with the issue could clues us in as to when *reductionism* was first used in philosophy? Justin? Pomo's don't feel threatened by stuff like quantum physics or ecology or epidemiology; although as the Sokal affairs showed, many don't understand those and many other disciplines of science and how science is done.
If anything they're pluralists, some of whom hide behind cynicism and ironic stances in order to ward off thinking and doing something about evil and suffering and the deep human need for compassion and, um, getting rid of the social processes that obstruct our capacities to make that compassion palpable and have genuine institutional effects, like class, race and gender.
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"The one true theory of reality and society" is typical liberal, mocking cant. Leaves one in a state of postie wishywashiness, unable to do anything to change the world, because nothing is true. Action needs a presumption that something is true to base one's action. =================
Well yeah in the sense that we can have pluralism within liberalism, but liberalism, like capitalism strives to be monopolistic if "it" feels threatened by competition; Nazism, Communism, Anarchism etc. In that sense it could be seen as a totality--as Louis Hartz, Albert O Hirschman and Geoffrey Hodgson have pointed out. But that's precisely what liberals deny when they talk about limited government--missing completely the issue of how *governance* and *coercion* still permeate socities even with limited government--Hale and the LR folks.
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Marxism is the _best_ theory of reality and society in the year 2002, however the Marxist theory of knowledge, as explained by Engels and Lenin, does not claim any scientific theory , including Marxism, is absolute truth, rather that knowledge develops over time.
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Well that's debatable to many people................................................What is reality anyway ;->? [can you tell it's time for beer and pretzels?]
The question isn't whether Marxism is the best theory of reality and society, but how do we create institutions that serve people not profit and reflect all those ideals we all claim are the best human beings can aspire to in an uncertain and open universe.
Ian