[lbo-talk] Contradiction

Robert Wrubel bobwrubel at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 1 09:27:11 PST 2007


--- Eubulides <prince.plumples at gmail.com> wrote:

"Why not just use the vocabularies of ecology and evolutionary theory? There is little dispute that our current institutional formations are maladaptive with respect to our species and others relations with the planet and it gives us a handle for slowly rolling back the nefarious grip of theistic worldviews on our political imaginations."

I missed the early part of this thread, and didnt understand why a discussion of contradiction had become involved with disputes about realism, idealism and materialism. Broadly speaking, human enterprises are contradictory -- wars, formation of states, economies, religions, personal relationships. Homer ascribes the contradictions to gods; Sophocles locates them in human projects. The two great attempts by Europeans to control their world -- christianity and capitalism -- are tragically contradictory.

BobW


> On Nov 30, 2007 10:22 PM, Robert Wrubel
> <bobwrubel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Instead of saying contradictions are in the mind,
> or
> > in the physical world, why not say contradictions
> > arise in human attempts to interpret or control
> > natural processes? A river will meander wherever
> the
> > laws of physics allow it to, without
> contradiction,
> > but human attempts to direct a river's course
> often
> > fail. Human attempts to plunder the planet will
> fail
> > too, eventually.
> > BobW
>
>
> ===========
>
> Why not just use the vocabularies of ecology and
> evolutionary theory?
> There is little dispute that our current
> institutional formations are
> maladaptive with respect to our species and others
> relations with the
> planet and it gives us a handle for slowly rolling
> back the nefarious
> grip of theistic worldviews on our political
> imaginations.
>
> Ian
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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