[lbo-talk] a few points

[bhandari at berkeley.edu]

1. CB Machpherson's criticism of Milton Friedman's defense of the free
contract falls short
of Marx's own  demonstration of how contract becomes appropriation, turns
into its opposite. I tried to defend Marx's argument in chs 22-24 of
capital volume I  in the conversation about justice.
2. Joseph Bernal wrote powerful criticism of the kind of intellectual
obscurantism that served as an obstacle to the scientific understanding of
nature and society or its rational control. I think Nanda may reject too
much in the name of anti-obsurantism--post positivist philosophies of
science, the philosophical exploration of epistemological and ontological
uncertainty, the power/knowledge nexus. Having read some of her previous
work, I am worried about some lacking nuance, though I think she is very
brave to have challenged real obscurantism.
3. People may enjoy this provocative paper on the tolerance of Islam in
the West. See paper by
Talal Asad.

http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/swg_crittheory.shtml

wish I could have kept up with the interesting discussions.
rb