Max wrote,
>The problem is getting accurate information and
>having the plan's instructions carried out without the eye
>and hand of God behind every economic agent.
May I add that this is a problem for which there _cannot_ be a solution
because it is rooted in the contingent relationship between language and
reality. In order to be of any use whatsoever, language has to abstract,
generalize, metaphorize and dissemble in myriad other ways. Without its
dissembling features, language adds nothing to pointing. "Accurate
information" is a sly oxymoron.
By contrast, reality is ruthlessly particular. There are NO categories or
averages in reality -- just precisely THIS and precisely THAT. God is an
ancient attempt to conceptualize the tension between word and world -- an
attempt that remains unsurpassed, although I suspect that the dictatorship
of the proletariat is a worthy candidate for updating it. Consider the two
following propositions:
"In the beginning was the word . . ."
"Reflection on the forms of human life, hence also scientific analysis of
those forms, takes a course directly opposite to their real development."
Superficially these two statements are "opposites" because they place word
and world in a different order of priority. But their opposition arises from
a deeper agreement about the radical separation of word and world. Viewed
phenomenologically, rather than ontologically, the propositions are also in
agreement.
It's one thing to recognize the radical separation of word and world and
another to try to "overcome" it. The latter leads to magic, alchemy,
allegory, literalism, solipsism, scientism and fundamentalism -- exactly
what the Faust tale is all about. To paraphrase Goethe's last words, "More
Goethe!"
Regards,
Tom Walker
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