Straw man. No one here disagrees with this. We are none of us "methodological individualists." Psychology is shaped by social context and vice versa. Beliefs and desires are not exogenous. They are not, as the Great Helmsman said, innate in the mind nor do they fall from the sky. Put it as you will. The only person who disagrees is Carrol, who thinks that beliefs and desires do not matter at all. Life is too short to debate obvious misunderstandings. Stick to the actual point, please.
--- Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> > On Jun 30, 2007, at 7:51 PM, boddi satva wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Surely you're not suggesting that the rattling and
> stacking of gold
> >>coins is the same exercise as modern finance?
> >
> >
> > Nope. But why did Steve Schwarzman need another $2
> billion from the
> > Blackstone IPO? He already had $4 billion, and
> lunched regularly on
> > $400 stone crabs. Why the need for more? Always
> more?
> >
> > Schwarzman's need for more is shaped by American
> capitalism, for
> > sure, but his need for more - every deal
> Blackstone has done has
> > affected the lives of many thousands of people -
> shapes the world we
> > live in too.
>
> Perhaps this specific example can clarify my point:
> sure, individual
> thought and behavior shape society and the world.
> However, in order for
> Schwarzman's psychological tendencies to have
> effects on many thousands
> of people, there must be something other than his
> own psychological
> tendencies that enable that widespread social
> impact. Those enabling
> conditions are facets of the social structure that
> sociologists analyze.
>
> Miles
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
____________________________________________________________________________________ The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php