Christian writes:
> Not to get into script analysis, but then what did you mean
> by "It's a religion. What more can one say?" Seriously.
I was responding to someone who wanted a critique of Buddhism by saying that you can't argue with religions, since they are based on faith. Further, I can't see how one can side with one religion over another on the theoretical level (though obviously some practices are obnoxious).
> I'm interested in why so many leftists seem so anxious to
> excise the slightest suggestion of allegiance (even
> temporary) with religious or spiritual people. I get their
> sourness with American protestantism, but that, combined with
> a crude "opiate of the masses" thing, and a vague "scientism"
> (doubly strange for a heterodox economist) leaves them . . .
> where in the scope of things--especially their own struggles?
As Marx noted, religion is the opiate of the people -- but people need opiate. (That's why he rejected the hard-core atheism of the Young Hegelians.) He thought that religion would go away when socialism or communism came. I don't think so. As long as people die, the survivors will need some sort of religion.
I reject scientism, but I do think that scientific criteria are quite relevant. Without them, people who call themselves "social scientists" can just blather on forever, pushing ideology. Even for those who don't use that moniker, rejecting scientific criteria encourages obscurantism.
Just because something doesn't live up to scientific criteria doesn't mean it should be rejected. It should be labeled as non- or pre-scientific, but still can be extremely revealing, helping us to understand the world.
BTW, I think that heterodox economics can be _more_ scientific than the neoclassical stuff.
> With respect to Buddhism, especially as received in America,
> if you drew up a short list of buddhist economic principles,
> I would be willing to bet they would look pretty similar to
> the ones espoused by, say, Robin Hahnel and Michel Albert.
the same might be said for Catholic theology. Look at what the Pope says about capitalism. Catholic social thinkers have proposed something that looks a bit like syndicalism.
both Buddhist and Catholic proposals need to be evaluated using standards external to those faiths.
Jim