[lbo-talk] Re: Biology and Society

Jerry Monaco monacojerry at gmail.com
Wed May 31 18:17:17 PDT 2006


On 5/31/06, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
> It seems there is always confusion when an attempt is made to derive
> real propositions from tautological premises. Humans are animals. That
> is either tautological or incoherent. Any affirmationf _or_ denial of it
> is going to lead to more confusion. Humans are biological is simply
> awkward English. Humans are biological creatures brings in a creator.
> Humans are biological agents. Gee Whiz! That can't make any sense
> because its contrary can't make any sense.

I think saying that a living organism is biological and not some supernatural entity is a little like saying that a rock is "physical" and is not merely that part of the physical that some call the mental. These are natural-kind terms that in an everyday conversation we use in common sense ways. To say that homo sapiens sapiens is not a biological organism, and what ever makes human history, personality, etc does not somehow, we don't know how, come out of our biological nature, does not make sense as a starting point for discussion, unless one wants to start from a "spiritual premise" of some kind.

These may be tautologies but sometimes you must agree on the tautologies in order to have a good conversation.

Jerry

Possibly there are no propositions of the form "Humans are X" that are
> both coherent and non-tautological. At least I've never come across a
> coherent discussion in which participants try to draw concrete
> conclusions starting out with universal propositions about humans.
>
> Carrol
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> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>

-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/

His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/

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