http://richarddawkins.net/article,824,Postmodernism-Disrobed,Richard-Dawkins-Nature
NRIII
--- Jerry Monaco <monacojerry at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Charles Brown <
> charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> wrote:
>
> > Materialism as used here _is_ a theory. It is
> opposed to "idealism" by
> > Engels in defining what he calls the basic
> question of philosophy in
> > _Ludwig Feuerbach_.
>
>
> Materialism does not assume the modular aspects of
> theory or the "testing"
> aspects of a hypothesis. Materialism is a
> philosophical orientation and is
> necessarily pre-theoretical. Epicurus and Lucretius
> were no more
> theoreticians than Augustine of Hippo, no matter
> that both Epicurus and
> Lucretius were materialists.
>
> On the other-hand there were plenty of philosophic
> "idealists" who developed
> theories or contributed to theory development.
> Newton & Ernst Mach come to
> mind in physics. Wallace comes to mind in
> evolutionary biology.
>
> One should distinguish the many uses of the term
> "theory" of course and
> probably others have discussed this.
>
> It should be considered a happy necessity to
> distinguish, "scientific
> theories" (quantum mechanics and the neo-Darwinian
> synthesis for example)
> from "research programs" (Chomsky's minimalist
> program for example or
> Edleman's "neural Darwinism", for example) and
> hypotheses, no matter how
> "structured" as models the latter are. One should
> also distinguish theories
> from well articulated and conscious "philosophical
> systems" and more or less
> conscious "world-views".
>
> This may strike Doug as another imitation of the
> parody of the hierarchies
> of Matthew Arnold. I don't know. I have always
> liked Matthew Arnold as a
> writer to think about, and as a cultural politician
> to reject. I think
> Coleridge is more my kind of conservative.
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
> > With all due respect to auto mechanics, the vast
> > majority do not discuss this issue _as_ auto
> mechanics. Some auto
> > mechanics might have an interest in philosophy as
> a hobby, pretty much
> > unrelated to their "day job", and then might
> discuss it , have an
> > opinion on it. At any rate, it would be acting as
> an intellectual of
> > some sort that the mechanic would discuss
> materialism or have an opinion
> > on materialism, not as an
> "engineer-physicist-mechanic". Questions of
> > materialism vs idealism don't arise in dealing
> with the problems of
> > fixing a car.
> >
> > Also, the choice of the category "auto-mechanic"
> in contrast with
> > "intellectual" probably derives from a notion that
> > "physicists-engineers-mechanics" are more likely
> to hold materialist and
> > not idealist positions on the issue. But, lots of
> famous physicists have
> > been philosophical idealists. Newton was a
> believer in God ( Belief in
> > God is an idealist position; see Engels's
> discussion of this in
> > _Socialism: Utopian or Scientific). Mach was an
> idealist, a
> > neo-Kantian. Heisenberg of uncertainty principle
> fame was an
> > philosophical idealist, and his uncertainty
> principle was put forth as
> > an underpinning to that idealist position.
> Einstein seems to have been
> > a materialist, explicitly disagreeing with Mach
> that atoms were just
> > thought-structures or some such.
> >
> > The original review that gave rise to this
> thread, seems to be from a
> > neo-phyte rightwinger dipping into a time warp for
> threadbare anti-left
> > material; and the article is pretty much a
> mishmash, conflating
> > "liberal" with Marxist , and some other things.
> But I bet there is
> > really very, very little Marxism taught in the US
> schools, so this
> > article might stir up more interest in Marxism
> than is already there.
> >
> > As to the anthology... might be worth critiquing.
> >
> > Charles
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
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>
Dr. Nicholas Ruiz III Associate Professor Department of Humanities, Cultural and Studio Arts Daytona Beach College PO Box 2811 Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2811 Editor, Kritikos http://intertheory.org