Julio Huato wrote: > Variable, the notion in logic that captures "change," is one of the > most universal categories in modern logic. You can view it as the > most elementary translation into modern logic of the category of Being > (as the unity of Quality and Quantity) from classical philosophy. If > we think that the "good life" (or anything else for that matter) can > be defined qualitatively (which you're doing) without *necessarily* > implying its quantitative aspect, then we need to go back to Hegel > 1.0. Didn't Hegel warned against the "ordinary way of thinking" that > assumed quality and quantity to be independent? Didn't the Man called > quantity "quality sublated"? Find me a quality that doesn't entail a > quantity, which is to say, find me something that doesn't change > (aside from God under its various guises).
We've had this discussion before. A "variable" in logic is something that remains self-identical through changes in its relations to the extent required by the argument, e.g. "the stature of children", "the income of households" and "angels". This maintenance is require for meaningful quantities, e.g. 20 versus 10 "angels". Where relations are "internal" complete self-identity is not maintained through such changes, so valid use requires maintenance of the degree of self-identity the particular argument requires. The "good life" as elaborated by Marx involves a specific relation, the one elaborated in the passage I quoted. Without the relation, it doesn't exist. For instance, the activities of creation and appropriation involved in the relation have to be the activities of universally developed individuals (themselves the product of specific internal social relations) since the activities require the developed capabilities that define such individuals. If individuals lack these capabilities, they are incapable of relations of mutual recognition. So you can't meaningfully treat a "good life" in this sense as a "variable" capable of quantitative change. It's Hegel who pointed to the limitation internal relations create for the applicability of "logic" in this sense. Ted _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
