> "Will proper" and "universal will" may be vital for realizing the
> "true
> realm of freedom" Marx formulated, but that doesn't mean they are
> essential for cooperative democracy, socialistic or anarchistic,
> which is
> what Jerry was refering too.
The might be true. To demonstrate it, though, you would have to show how the idea of "cooperative democracy" can be consistently elaborated in terms of an ontology that excludes "choice" and "purpose" as determinants of human action.
> Also, was Marx really consistent about this
> point, he talks about a "species character" for creative work,
> isn't that
> a kind of determinism?
It's a kind of determinism that allows human action to be self- determined in the sense I mentioned. The term "species-being" means a being with the capability of actualizing a "will proper" and a "universal will".
"The practical creation of an objective world, the fashioning of inorganic nature, is proof that man is a conscious species-being -- i.e., a being which treats the species as its own essential being or itself as a species-being. It is true that animals also produce. They build nests and dwelling, like the bee, the beaver, the ant, etc. But they produce only their own immediate needs or those of their young; they produce only when immediate physical need compels them to do so, while man produces even when he is free from physical need and truly produces only in freedom from such need; they produce only themselves, while man reproduces the whole of nature; their products belong immediately to their physical bodies, while man freely confronts his own product. Animals produce only according to the standards and needs of the species to which they belong, while man is capable of producing according to the standards of every species and of applying to each object its inherent standard; hence, man also produces in accordance with the laws of beauty." http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm
Ted