“In community, the individual is, crucial as the prior condition for forming a community. … Every individual in the community guarantees the community; the public is a chimera, numerality is everything…”
– Søren Kierkegaard, Journals ^^^^ Pace Kierkegaard, of course , for we social determinists , this is absolutely backward, fundamentally wrong. The social, the communal, the community is prior to individuals. Kierkegaard's statement is a basic maxim of bourgeois ideology, whether as existentialism, libertarianism, Social Darwinism, positivism, Reaganism, Tea Parting et al. In all , "the" individual is primary over and determinative of the social. It is an error in the understanding of the levels of organization of reality, and specifically of human life. Human culture, society and history constitute an emergent level of reality, in which the whole is more than the some of its parts, and is determinative of the parts. It is a philosophical error concerning the relationship of the whole and the parts. "The" human individual is a social individual. Even Kierkegaard was; he just didn't know it. So, is the most radical libertarian; they just don't know it. Our species name should be, not homo sapiens, but homo communis. Our high level of sociality is the differentia specifica of our species. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
