----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
Yes.
The word was coined by Auguste Comte -- i.e., the concept was created to name a problem that only showed up in an utterly ahistorical and radically individualist worldview.
The problem does not exist because the assumptions that pose it are false.
Carrol
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Just because altruism is not a problem, it does not follow that it is not a behavior. Speech is not a problem, it does not follow that it is not in need of explanation. Now if you want to deconstruct all the names associated with biological kinds associated with positivism, why stop there? Why not take the same attitude towards all the biological terms still in use we've inherited from Aristotle as well? One could just as easily say Ego refers to nothing -Brian Dauth call your office. Or Individual refers to nothing or.....
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