[lbo-talk] A time of doubt for atheists

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Jul 28 12:59:16 PDT 2005


Tommy Kelly wrote:


>When it comes to the topic of dialectics, I tend to agree with Noam Chomsky:
>
> "Dialectics is one that I've never understood, actually - I've just
>never understood what the word means. Marx doesn't use it, incidentally,
>it's used by Engels.|...| I haven't the foggiest idea what it is. It seems
>to mean something about complexity, or alternative positions, or change, or
>something. I don't know." [p228 "Understanding Power"]

You know, I just don't believe that. The guy is a linguist, one of the all-time giants of that field. If there were a Nobel in the discipline he'd have gotten it. He's pretending to be anti-intellectual here - which isn't surprising, since he once told me he liked American anti-intellectualism. This pose is really not worthy of him.

Doug



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