[lbo-talk] Mitchel's interview with two Platypus organizers

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Apr 6 19:15:36 PDT 2010


Chris Doss wrote:
>
> Oddly enough, the English language also makes possible a useful distinction between "Thought" and
> "Theory."

No. You can't say Newton's thought of gravity. "Thoery" is of course acceptable there;, but it is _not_ really acceptable in Theory of Party Organization. And "Thought of Party Organization" is unintelligible.

Now, we solve that simply by using "theory" in several different senses -- a perfectly reasonable solution to most problems of naming -- in all languages. It just happens that in the socialist tradition "science" and "theory" have usually been interpreted in a dogmatic fashion & Marx turned into a positivist thinker, political thought treated as eternal scientific law.

Carrol



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list