Rod Hay wrote: > > I think this confuses things. An idea is not matter. It seems as if someone > has made an ideological committment to "materialism" and then decides that > racism exists and is important therefore it must be matter. Racism is an > ideology (i.e., a system of ideas). Electricity is a material force. Human > labour is a material force. It is important to keep the two concepts > separate. I think Jim D. was trying to show that ideas and material forces > exist in a dialectical relation. I wouldn't argue with that. But an idea is > not matter!!!!! Technically, ideas occur or are originated in brains and brains are physical things. In principle it is possible to identify ideas as certain neurophysiological and chemical processes and argue that these processes do not fully explain the content of the idea so that there is room for ideas to be, at least partially, determined by social/historical forces. If you are a materialist, there is only physical matter and nothing else. If you are a Platonist then ideas exist in the "forms" or in universals whose ontological status is kind of fuzzy. The question is: will the laws of physical matter, ultimately, explain everything? Is sociology just physics and engineering? Sam Pawlett
