[Marxism] Joint ventures go global on Chinese terms
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == China Squeezes Foreigners for Share of Global Riches By SHAI OSTER, NORIHIKO SHIROUZU And PAUL GLADER Wall Street Journal December 28 2010 BEIJING—Foreign companies have been teaming up with Chinese ones for years to gain access to the giant Chinese market. Now some of the world's biggest companies are taking a risky but potentially rewarding second step—folding pieces of their world-wide operations into partnerships with Chinese companies to do business around the globe. General Electric Co. is finalizing plans for a 50-50 joint venture with a Chinese military-jet maker to produce avionics, the electronic brains of aircraft. The deal with Aviation Industry Corp. of China would give GE access to a Chinese government project aimed at challenging Boeing Co. and Airbus in the civilian-aircraft market. General Motors Co. established a joint venture this year with SAIC Motor Corp., its longtime partner in China, to produce and sell their no-frills Wuling-brand microvans in India, and eventually in Southeast Asia and other emerging markets as well. The two deals show China Inc.'s growing international ambitions, as well as its increasing leverage over foreign partners. To make the GE deal happen, GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt made an extraordinary concession, agreeing to fold into the venture all of GE's existing world-wide business in nonmilitary avionics. GM, in its deal, contributed technology, its manufacturing facilities in India and use of its Chevrolet brand name in that market. Several forces are motivating China's foreign partners to strike global deals that would have been unthinkable a few years back. China's big government-backed companies now have enormous financial resources and growing political clout, making them attractive partners outside China. In addition, the Chinese market has become so important to the success of multinational companies that Beijing has the ability to drive harder bargains. But such deals also carry risk. Several earlier joint ventures inside China have soured over concerns that Chinese partners, after gaining access to Western technology and know-how, have gone on to become potent new rivals to their partners. Foreign partners are seeing they will have to sometimes sacrifice or share the benefits of the global market with the Chinese partner, says Raymond Tsang, a China-based partner at consultancy Bain Co. Some of the [multinational corporations] are complaining. But given the changing market conditions, if you don't do it, your competitors will. Big energy companies, too, have been pursuing international deals with Chinese companies. China has supplanted the U.S. as the world's biggest energy consumer, making access to its market vital for global companies. Foreign firms hope that teaming up with Chinese companies abroad will help on that front. Foreign companies supply technology and experience, and their Chinese partners provide geopolitical clout, low-cost labor, and easy access to credit that China's government-backed companies enjoy. State-owned China National Petroleum Corp. was one of the first foreign oil companies to sign a major contract in Iraq. BP PLC teamed up with it last year for a $15 billion investment to increase output at the giant Rumaila field. Over the summer, Royal Dutch Shell PLC joined with PetroChina Co., a publicly traded subsidiary of China National Petroleum, on a $3.15 billion acquisition of assets from Australian energy company Arrow Energy Ltd. China has been gaining clout in some resource-rich parts of the developing world where U.S. companies don't have strong footholds, partly by spending lavishly on infrastructure projects, and it can help broker deals in places like Venezuela and Myanmar, where it has good relations. In financial services, foreign banks long have coveted access to China's fast-growing securities business. China has allowed a number of companies into the market in recent years through joint ventures, with their stakes capped at about 33%. Chinese regulators also restrict which parts of the securities business they can do. Crédit Agricole SA already is involved in such a joint venture through its Asian brokerage arm, called CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, but it is a minor player in China. In May, its investment-banking unit announced a preliminary deal with China's government-owned Citic Securities Co. to form a joint venture beyond China's borders. The French company plans to contribute CLSA and other pieces of its international operation. Citic Securities would throw in its small international unit, based in Hong Kong. Crédit Agricole hopes that helping Citic Securities realize its international ambitions will enable the French bank to
Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == An excellent example of this lingo is the HBO series Deadwood in which the characters speak florid Victorian prose liberally spiced with the f word and other vulgarities. On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 5:46 PM, Mark Lause markala...@gmail.com wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yes, Louis. Fiction is literature, and neither of us had many conversations with those people...so we go on the basis of other things, such as how they wrote. And I'm sure that you've read much more of what they were writing than I have. See, I can write literature, too... :-) ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/tomcod3%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I was an early booster of Deadwood and participated in the internet campaign slamming HBO for canceling the series (they admit if was their biggest mistake ever). The language of course was a big part of this show. It was liberally fictionalized with modern contemporary (vulgar, profane, pornographic, etc), terms often interspersed into the 19th Century linguistics spoken more in a Shakespearean sort of dialogue than Victorian. I thought this is what made the diolague so outstanding, in that the scenes were often written, and delivered, as the kind of dialogue one may of heard delivered at the Globe Theatre as opposed to American TV. What added to all this was the basic historical accuracy of the characters involved...not the way they were portrayed...that was fictional...but the actual course of the story arc which, while 'interpreted' by the writers, played out pretty much in real life...and death. I highly recommend that people on this list rent the DVDs of this remarkable, well acted, totally fascinating series. David Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Once more on democratic centralism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yesterday Nick Fredman of the Socialist Alliance in Australia, a very promising attempt to transcend sectarianism initiated by comrades of the Democratic Socialist Party who have quite correctly dissolved into this broader formation, raised a very important question about caucuses, drawing implicitly into consideration the whole question of democratic centralism. He wrote a comment under my post about the SWP/Laurie Penny dispute: Which is why I dont understand at all Louis absolute stricture against caucusing before movement meetings. Theres a big difference between on the one hand, say, a small student action group meeting with the majority there members of far left groups each repeating points already made about the absolute necessity of a rally being on this date rather than that, before voting on 'party lines' (been there, wish I hadnt), and on the other, say, a large meeting of union delegates with a small minority of socialists who had worked out some proposals beforehand that were better than the bureaucrats course, and some sensible (and different) things to say in support if they get the chance, which may well win people over (been there, glad I was). One also doesnt have to scream at or expel people who dont follow such discipline (when its decided its worthwhile to have such), as opposed to a sense of proportion and a bit of patient explanation when appropriate. This is absolutely correct. Caucuses are absolutely necessary in the mass movement. Socialist groups must expect their members to vote based on majority rule in such circumstances. That in fact is what the centralism part of democratic centralism is all about. It is anti-democratic for a socialist parliamentarian to ignore his or her partys wishes. When workers donate their time and money to elect a member to parliament, the least they can expect is to see their wishes expressed there. One of the great scandals of 1914 is that some socialist deputies voted for war credits despite the partys antiwar declarations. The problem, however, is that for small, self-declared Leninist formations, the discussions about policy take place behind their organizational firewall. I saw this all through the Vietnam antiwar movement when the SWP held what we called fraction meetings before a key national gathering. We were told that we were for a, b and c and that we should follow the lead of our floor captains when a crucial vote came up. This was what made so many people hate Trots. It was so obvious that someone like Fred Halstead or Gus Horowitz was calling the shots. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/once-more-on-democratic-centralism/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] [microsound] Once more on democratic centralism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Solidarity after a majority vote is a principle of every political party, and not a special feature of democratic centralism. Even in bourgeois parties, the rule is to shut up and support the majority after you lose the vote. What is central about democratic centralism is that the rank and file elect representatives, who, in turn, elect the next level. This is the contrast that Lenin makes between centralism and federalism. This is just a conceptual point. I am not disagreeing with the main thrust of your post. -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/-Marxism--Once-more-on-democratic-centralism-tp30559262p30559938.html Sent from the Marxism mailing list archive at Nabble.com. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Profits and investment in the recovery
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/profits-and-investment-in-the-economic-recovery/ Ian Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Joint ventures go global on Chinese terms
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Peggy Powell Dobbins Sociology as an Art Form www.peggydobbins.net Begin forwarded message: From: Marv Gandall marvg...@gmail.com Date: December 30, 2010 5:16:34 AM CST To: peggy dobbins pegdobb...@gmail.com Subject: [Marxism] Joint ventures go global on Chinese terms Reply-To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == China Squeezes Foreigners for Share of Global Riches By SHAI OSTER, NORIHIKO SHIROUZU And PAUL GLADER Wall Street Journal December 28 2010 BEIJING—Foreign companies have been teaming up with Chinese ones for years to gain access to the giant Chinese market. Now some of the world's biggest companies are taking a risky but potentially rewarding second step—folding pieces of their world-wide operations into partnerships with Chinese companies to do business around the globe. General Electric Co. is finalizing plans for a 50-50 joint venture with a Chinese military-jet maker to produce avionics, the electronic brains of aircraft. The deal with Aviation Industry Corp. of China would give GE access to a Chinese government project aimed at challenging Boeing Co. and Airbus in the civilian-aircraft market. General Motors Co. established a joint venture this year with SAIC Motor Corp., its longtime partner in China, to produce and sell their no-frills Wuling-brand microvans in India, and eventually in Southeast Asia and other emerging markets as well. The two deals show China Inc.'s growing international ambitions, as well as its increasing leverage over foreign partners. To make the GE deal happen, GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt made an extraordinary concession, agreeing to fold into the venture all of GE's existing world-wide business in nonmilitary avionics. GM, in its deal, contributed technology, its manufacturing facilities in India and use of its Chevrolet brand name in that market. Several forces are motivating China's foreign partners to strike global deals that would have been unthinkable a few years back. China's big government-backed companies now have enormous financial resources and growing political clout, making them attractive partners outside China. In addition, the Chinese market has become so important to the success of multinational companies that Beijing has the ability to drive harder bargains. But such deals also carry risk. Several earlier joint ventures inside China have soured over concerns that Chinese partners, after gaining access to Western technology and know-how, have gone on to become potent new rivals to their partners. Foreign partners are seeing they will have to sometimes sacrifice or share the benefits of the global market with the Chinese partner, says Raymond Tsang, a China-based partner at consultancy Bain Co. Some of the [multinational corporations] are complaining. But given the changing market conditions, if you don't do it, your competitors will. Big energy companies, too, have been pursuing international deals with Chinese companies. China has supplanted the U.S. as the world's biggest energy consumer, making access to its market vital for global companies. Foreign firms hope that teaming up with Chinese companies abroad will help on that front. Foreign companies supply technology and experience, and their Chinese partners provide geopolitical clout, low-cost labor, and easy access to credit that China's government-backed companies enjoy. State-owned China National Petroleum Corp. was one of the first foreign oil companies to sign a major contract in Iraq. BP PLC teamed up with it last year for a $15 billion investment to increase output at the giant Rumaila field. Over the summer, Royal Dutch Shell PLC joined with PetroChina Co., a publicly traded subsidiary of China National Petroleum, on a $3.15 billion acquisition of assets from Australian energy company Arrow Energy Ltd. China has been gaining clout in some resource-rich parts of the developing world where U.S. companies don't have strong footholds, partly by spending lavishly on infrastructure projects, and it can help broker deals in places like Venezuela and Myanmar, where it has good relations. In financial services, foreign banks long have coveted access to China's fast-growing securities business. China has allowed a number of companies into the market in recent years through joint ventures, with their stakes capped at about 33%. Chinese regulators also restrict which parts of the
Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have not seen Deadwood and one reason is that I do not subscribe to HBO - but if the Deadwood tv show protrays Wild Bill Hickcock other than the Gay man that he was - then we have a continuation of the homophobic crap foisted previously - when ealier U. S. tv shows had portrayed lies about native people and that all western cowboys were heteros!!! His best female friend Calamity Jane was a noted shootist - but her Lesbianism was never acknowledged during or since that time. Bill Hickcock was murdered, shot in the back in Deadwood City, while playing cards - and the cards he held became known as the Deadman's Hand, because of his murder. Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:53:18 -0800 From: dwalters...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up To: causecollec...@msn.com == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I was an early booster of Deadwood and participated in the internet campaign slamming HBO for canceling the series (they admit if was their biggest mistake ever). The language of course was a big part of this show. It was liberally fictionalized with modern contemporary (vulgar, profane, pornographic, etc), terms often interspersed into the 19th Century linguistics spoken more in a Shakespearean sort of dialogue than Victorian. I thought this is what made the diolague so outstanding, in that the scenes were often written, and delivered, as the kind of dialogue one may of heard delivered at the Globe Theatre as opposed to American TV. What added to all this was the basic historical accuracy of the characters involved...not the way they were portrayed...that was fictional...but the actual course of the story arc which, while 'interpreted' by the writers, played out pretty much in real life...and death. I highly recommend that people on this list rent the DVDs of this remarkable, well acted, totally fascinating series. David Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/causecollector%40msn.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok was portrayed by Keith Carradine, and his homosexuality was neither acknowledged nor denied. He is portrayed as a close friend of Calamity Jane, and is engaged by a wealthy and opium-addicted eastern lady, played by Molly Parker, to protect her mining interests.--Tom -Original Message- From: marxism-bounces+tgbias=ptd@lists.econ.utah.edu [mailto:marxism-bounces+tgbias=ptd@lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of John Obrien Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 7:31 PM To: tgb...@ptd.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have not seen Deadwood and one reason is that I do not subscribe to HBO - but if the Deadwood tv show protrays Wild Bill Hickcock other than the Gay man that he was - then we have a continuation of the homophobic crap foisted previously - when ealier U. S. tv shows had portrayed lies about native people and that all western cowboys were heteros!!! His best female friend Calamity Jane was a noted shootist - but her Lesbianism was never acknowledged during or since that time. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Sins of South Beach
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I've been down in South Beach, Florida for a week now and will be here until the 22nd of January. Will be doing a DIY video about South Beach incorporating my intrepid class analysis mixed with pop culture stuff, like old Miami Vice episodes, Scarface, etc. To get some background on the history of the area (the southern tip of Miami Beach), I am reading Alex Daoud's Sins of South Beach, a fairly new book by the guy who was mayor of Miami Beach from 1985 to 1991 and also served 18 months in prison for taking bribes. If another book like this has been written, I don't know about it. This is an amazing tell-all book about the cesspool of bourgeois politics with bankers and real estate magnates buying elections. Daoud is a very good writer and spares nobody, including himself. I am going to try to land an interview with him. A 1 of 100 chance of succeeding but well worth trying. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sins of South Beach
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Good luck, Louis. You might try to look up a man named Jim DeFede who used to work at the MIAMI HERALD whom they canned after he recorded the words of a politican named Arthur Teele who shortly thereafter committed suicide. DeFede'd written marvelous columns about the Cuban exile world - and NOT as a leftist - and he had made his reputation mostly as a muckracker regarding the Miami universe. I'm sure you'd get an earful from Jim DeFede. Now he works on some local TV news show. http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/30/State/What_pushed_politicia.shtml = WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] True Grit follow-up
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Mark me down as a fan of Deadwood as well...for all the reasons noted. The writing was exquisite and the cast superb. As with True Grit, it used an authentic vocabulary in a dialogue that was literary and played for effect. The vulgarity was likely some of the most authentic features of its language. For all of its innovativeness, I don't think the last century has added much at all to the vocabularity of profanity. I'm not an expert on this by any means, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of it was in place very early in the emergence of modern language. Linguists say that the terminology for body parts and bodily functions are among the first locked into place in the evolution of language. I don't know about Wild Bill, but Deadwood conveyed a lot of the sexual tensions and ambiguities in an overwhelmingly male only society. Nor did it have any problems portraying Calamity Jane's sexuality pretty clearly and quite sympathetically. ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] ¡Feliz año nuevo!
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.marxists.org/espanol/index.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] [Marxism] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
I am going to lay my cards on the table and say that I don't think there is any room in philosophy for theories and theses. So I get nervous and suspicious when the 'isms' come marching by. One that makes me particularly nervous is Scientific Realism. The reason for that is that I think that historical facts extraneous to both philosophy and to the sciences have been a major subterranean motivation for the belief in what might be called an 'ultimate reality' as a goal of, or limit on scientific work. If we describe that 'ultimate reality' as a goal in the sense of something worked toward, and as a limit in the sense of what it is that gives us something to measure our theories against and test their adequacy, then we can see that it is a very appealing notion, one that seems to solve a lot of problems at once. ^ CB: He gets nervous ? Is that a philosophical response ? (smile) So, science has theories , but philosophy doesn't ? No theories and theses in philosophy ? Wow, that ought to be fun to watch. Practice is the test of theory, for Marxists. Since Rosa thinks this guy is such a Marxist, maybe he should have read the Second Thesis on Feuerbach, which by the way is one of Marx's philosophical _theses_. Evidently Marx thought theses appropriate to philosophy. On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 7:12 AM, Jim Farmelant farmela...@juno.com wrote: On Thu, 23 Dec 2010 06:57:21 -0500 Jim Farmelant farmela...@juno.com writes: Rosa Litchenstein has now published on her site the last of the Marxist philosopher Guy Robinson's essays: http://anti-dialectics.co.uk/Robinson_Essay_Four_On_Misunderstanding_Scie nce.htm Try this URL: http://tinyurl.com/38dfzuw It's all about Thomas Kuhn. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math New Amex Shopping Tool For Cardmembers Only. Try It Today Let the Offers Come To You! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d133cf5cf17288e4eest06vuc ___ 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 ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
Rosa, Marxist philosophy without theses ? Without theory ? CB http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm Theses On Feuerbach The main defect of all hitherto-existing materialism — that of Feuerbach included — is that the Object [der Gegenstand], actuality, sensuousness, are conceived only in the form of the object [Objekts], or of contemplation [Anschauung], but not as human sensuous activity, practice [Praxis], not subjectively. Hence it happened that the active side, in opposition to materialism, was developed by idealism — but only abstractly, since, of course, idealism does not know real, sensuous activity as such. Feuerbach wants sensuous objects [Objekte], differentiated from thought-objects, but he does not conceive human activity itself as objective [gegenständliche] activity. In The Essence of Christianity [Das Wesen des Christenthums], he therefore regards the theoretical attitude as the only genuinely human attitude, while practice is conceived and defined only in its dirty-Jewish form of appearance [Erscheinungsform][1]. Hence he does not grasp the significance of ‘revolutionary’, of ‘practical-critical’, activity. 2 The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth, i.e., the reality and power, the this-sidedness [Diesseitigkeit] of his thinking, in practice. The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking which is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question. 3 The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of changed circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men who change circumstances and that the educator must himself be educated. Hence this doctrine is bound to divide society into two parts, one of which is superior to society. The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-change [Selbstveränderung] can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice. 4 Feuerbach starts off from the fact of religious self-estrangement [Selbstentfremdung], of the duplication of the world into a religious, imaginary world, and a secular [weltliche] one. His work consists in resolving the religious world into its secular basis. He overlooks the fact that after completing this work, the chief thing still remains to be done. For the fact that the secular basis lifts off from itself and establishes itself in the clouds as an independent realm can only be explained by the inner strife and intrinsic contradictoriness of this secular basis. The latter must itself be understood in its contradiction and then, by the removal of the contradiction, revolutionised. Thus, for instance, once the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the holy family, the former must itself be annihilated [vernichtet] theoretically and practically. 5 Feuerbach, not satisfied with abstract thinking, wants sensuous contemplation [Anschauung]; but he does not conceive sensuousness as practical, human-sensuous activity. 6 Feuerbach resolves the essence of religion into the essence of man [menschliche Wesen = ‘human nature’]. But the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In reality, it is the ensemble of the social relations. Feuerbach, who does not enter upon a criticism of this real essence is hence obliged: 1. To abstract from the historical process and to define the religious sentiment regarded by itself, and to presuppose an abstract — isolated - human individual. 2. The essence therefore can by him only be regarded as ‘species’, as an inner ‘dumb’ generality which unites many individuals only in a natural way. 7 Feuerbach consequently does not see that the ‘religious sentiment’ is itself a social product, and that the abstract individual that he analyses belongs in reality to a particular social form. 8 All social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice. 9 The highest point reached by contemplative [anschauende] materialism, that is, materialism which does not comprehend sensuousness as practical activity, is the contemplation of single individuals and of civil society [bürgerlichen Gesellschaft]. 10 The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society or social humanity. 11 Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. 1. “Dirty-Jewish” — according to Marhsall Berman, this is an allusion to the Jewish God of the Old Testament, who had to ‘get his hands dirty’ making the world, tied up with a symbolic contrast between the Christian God of the Word, and the God of the Deed, symbolising practical life. See The Significance of the Creation in Judaism, Essence of
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
That project was exemplified in Descartes' Meditations, and it laid two demands on any account of knowledge and the means to knowledge, demands that set the standard and defined the adequacy of any account. There had been urgent reasons for making those demands but the reasons were historical rather than philosophical and came from the individualistic model of humanity that played such a pivotal role in the era's project of eliminating feudalism's remnants in thought and social institutions, and the project of justifying the conceptions and arrangements that were replacing them. That story needs to be elaborated, and will get some elaboration in the next chapter. What is important here is that those demands have been accepted since without serious critique or examination of alternatives. The first of the demands, describable as a democratic or individualistic' one, was that a method be found that was available to each separated individual to apply privately and severally in the search for knowledge. The second, relating to the knowledge thus found, was that the method would lead all who conscientiously applied it to the same, objective and timeless true view of things. ^^ CB: This point on individualistic method is a good one. This is how I define positivism. ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
This is a commonplace analysis of Descartes critique of the whole epistemological tradition that came out of this. However, the disavowal of scientific realism is childish. Speaking of childish, It's worth contemplating the symbiosis between Rosa's juvenile Wittgensteinianism and sectarianism. He differs from Henry Ford in declaring that, not history, but all philosophy, is bunk. And if this doesn't show you that the British far left--if that's what he is--is not at the end of its rope, what does? Now I'm reminded that I need to take a look at Plekhanov see if he's as bad as I'm told he is. On 12/30/2010 10:10 AM, c b wrote: That project was exemplified in Descartes' Meditations, and it laid two demands on any account of knowledge and the means to knowledge, demands that set the standard and defined the adequacy of any account. There had been urgent reasons for making those demands but the reasons were historical rather than philosophical and came from the individualistic model of humanity that played such a pivotal role in the era's project of eliminating feudalism's remnants in thought and social institutions, and the project of justifying the conceptions and arrangements that were replacing them. That story needs to be elaborated, and will get some elaboration in the next chapter. What is important here is that those demands have been accepted since without serious critique or examination of alternatives. The first of the demands, describable as a democratic or individualistic' one, was that a method be found that was available to each separated individual to apply privately and severally in the search for knowledge. The second, relating to the knowledge thus found, was that the method would lead all who conscientiously applied it to the same, objective and timeless true view of things. ^^ CB: This point on individualistic method is a good one. This is how I define positivism. ___ 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 ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
I was thinking of the philosophical backwardness prevalent in the Second International. I do like this quote from Plekhanov, however: Strictly speaking, /partisan science/ is impossible, but, regrettably enough, the existence is highly possible of /scientists who are imbued with the spirit of parties and with class selfishness/. When Marxists speak of bourgeois science with contempt, it is scientists of that brand that they have in view. It is to such scientists that the gentlemen Herr Bernstein has learnt so much from belong, /viz./ J. Wolf, Schulze-Gävernitz, and many others. Even if nine-tenths of scientific socialism has been taken from the writings of bourgeois economists, it has not been taken in the way in which Herr Bernstein has borrowed from the Brentanoists and other apologists of capitalism the material he uses to revise Marxism. Marx and Engels were able to take a /critical/ attitude towards bourgeois scientists, something that Herr Bernstein has been unable or unwilling to do. When he learns from them, he simply places himself under their influence and, without noticing the fact, adopts their apologetics. Georgi Plekhanov, *Cant Against Kant, or Herr Bernstein's Will and Testament* (August 1901) http://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1901/xx/cant.htm There must be a transcription error here: so much from *belong*: doesn't make sense. On 12/30/2010 10:49 AM, c b wrote: On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org wrote: This is a commonplace analysis of Descartes critique of the whole epistemological tradition that came out of this. However, the disavowal of scientific realism is childish. Speaking of childish, It's worth contemplating the symbiosis between Rosa's juvenile Wittgensteinianism and sectarianism. He differs from Henry Ford in declaring that, not history, but all philosophy, is bunk. And if this doesn't show you that the British far left--if that's what he is--is not at the end of its rope, what does? Now I'm reminded that I need to take a look at Plekhanov see if he's as bad as I'm told he is. ^^^ CB: Well, Plekhanov opposed the 1917 October insurrection. That's pretty stupid sectarian. On 12/30/2010 10:10 AM, c b wrote: That project was exemplified in Descartes' Meditations, and it laid two demands on any account of knowledge and the means to knowledge, demands that set the standard and defined the adequacy of any account. There had been urgent reasons for making those demands but the reasons were historical rather than philosophical and came from the individualistic model of humanity that played such a pivotal role in the era's project of eliminating feudalism's remnants in thought and social institutions, and the project of justifying the conceptions and arrangements that were replacing them. That story needs to be elaborated, and will get some elaboration in the next chapter. What is important here is that those demands have been accepted since without serious critique or examination of alternatives. The first of the demands, describable as a democratic or individualistic' one, was that a method be found that was available to each separated individual to apply privately and severally in the search for knowledge. The second, relating to the knowledge thus found, was that the method would lead all who conscientiously applied it to the same, objective and timeless true view of things. ^^ CB: This point on individualistic method is a good one. This is how I define positivism. ___ 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 ___ 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 ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
And here we have to say that Newton was a lot clearer about the status of what he called axioms and laws of motion than were later generations who looked on them as universal, and perhaps providential, truths about the cosmos. It took Henri Poincaré's hard work and careful analysis to bring out the fact that what was perhaps the most promising candidate of the three laws for empirical status and testable content, the Second Law -- nowadays rendered as Force equals mass times acceleration, -- was not in fact a testable, falsifiable claim about the cosmos or the things in it. Poincaré showed that there was no way of measuring each of the three components, the force, the mass and the acceleration independently in any concrete situation and that therefore no experiment could bring the law to the test. And so too for the other two of Newton's three laws of dynamics. ^^^ CB: This sounds like quantum mechanics . ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
I tried checking the text at leninist.biz, but I found the Plekhanov volume impossible to navigate. I wish someone would make this correction for me, because I would like to use this quote. It looks like I already did some preliminary spadework, viz. . . . Neo-Kantianism, Its History, Influence, and Relation to Socialism: Selected Secondary Bibliography http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/neokantianism_biblio_1.html There I link to 6 articles by Plekhanov on Kantianism. That entire period in philosophy, and for decades to come in continental European philosophy, was dominated by the Neo-Kantian influence. These debates are a small part of the overall picture. On 12/30/2010 11:14 AM, Ralph Dumain wrote: I was thinking of the philosophical backwardness prevalent in the Second International. I do like this quote from Plekhanov, however: Strictly speaking, /partisan science/ is impossible, but, regrettably enough, the existence is highly possible of /scientists who are imbued with the spirit of parties and with class selfishness/. When Marxists speak of bourgeois science with contempt, it is scientists of that brand that they have in view. It is to such scientists that the gentlemen Herr Bernstein has learnt so much from belong, /viz./ J. Wolf, Schulze-Gävernitz, and many others. Even if nine-tenths of scientific socialism has been taken from the writings of bourgeois economists, it has not been taken in the way in which Herr Bernstein has borrowed from the Brentanoists and other apologists of capitalism the material he uses to revise Marxism. Marx and Engels were able to take a /critical/ attitude towards bourgeois scientists, something that Herr Bernstein has been unable or unwilling to do. When he learns from them, he simply places himself under their influence and, without noticing the fact, adopts their apologetics. Georgi Plekhanov, *Cant Against Kant, or Herr Bernstein's Will and Testament* (August 1901) http://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1901/xx/cant.htm There must be a transcription error here: so much from *belong*: doesn't make sense. On 12/30/2010 10:49 AM, c b wrote: On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org wrote: This is a commonplace analysis of Descartes critique of the whole epistemological tradition that came out of this. However, the disavowal of scientific realism is childish. Speaking of childish, It's worth contemplating the symbiosis between Rosa's juvenile Wittgensteinianism and sectarianism. He differs from Henry Ford in declaring that, not history, but all philosophy, is bunk. And if this doesn't show you that the British far left--if that's what he is--is not at the end of its rope, what does? Now I'm reminded that I need to take a look at Plekhanov see if he's as bad as I'm told he is. ^^^ CB: Well, Plekhanov opposed the 1917 October insurrection. That's pretty stupid sectarian. On 12/30/2010 10:10 AM, c b wrote: That project was exemplified in Descartes' Meditations, and it laid two demands on any account of knowledge and the means to knowledge, demands that set the standard and defined the adequacy of any account. There had been urgent reasons for making those demands but the reasons were historical rather than philosophical and came from the individualistic model of humanity that played such a pivotal role in the era's project of eliminating feudalism's remnants in thought and social institutions, and the project of justifying the conceptions and arrangements that were replacing them. That story needs to be elaborated, and will get some elaboration in the next chapter. What is important here is that those demands have been accepted since without serious critique or examination of alternatives. The first of the demands, describable as a democratic or individualistic' one, was that a method be found that was available to each separated individual to apply privately and severally in the search for knowledge. The second, relating to the knowledge thus found, was that the method would lead all who conscientiously applied it to the same, objective and timeless true view of things. ^^ CB: This point on individualistic method is a good one. This is how I define positivism. ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:22:14 -0500 Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org writes: Itsworth contemplating the symbiosis between Rosa's juvenile Wittgensteinianism and sectarianism. He differs from Henry Ford in declaring that, not history, but all philosophy, is bunk. And if this doesn't show you that the British far left--if that's what he is--is not at the end of its rope, what does? Well, Rosa is a supporter of the British SWP which is still officially committed towards dialectical materialism as the philosophical basis for Marxism. However, she is supported by Richard Seymour who is very much a rising star within that party and the far generally in the UK. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Mortgage Rates Hit 2.99% If you owe under $729k you probably qualify for Gov't Refi Programs http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d1cb3ebbe3883ccf85st05vuc ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
Hasn't the British SWP been an advocate of Islamism? Furthermore, being caught in a struggle between inept arguments pro con diamat--doesn't this drag us back to the 19th century? What progress is there is this? On 12/30/2010 11:30 AM, Jim Farmelant wrote: On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:22:14 -0500 Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org writes: Itsworth contemplating the symbiosis between Rosa's juvenile Wittgensteinianism and sectarianism. He differs from Henry Ford in declaring that, not history, but all philosophy, is bunk. And if this doesn't show you that the British far left--if that's what he is--is not at the end of its rope, what does? Well, Rosa is a supporter of the British SWP which is still officially committed towards dialectical materialism as the philosophical basis for Marxism. However, she is supported by Richard Seymour who is very much a rising star within that party and the far generally in the UK. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
What's interesting about Plekhanov's Cant Against Kant is that in the process of refuting Bernstein's scapegoating of the dialectic, Plekhanov falters at the very moment he first cites/Engels/. If there were a philosophical root of the confusion, here's where it would be. It begins with the merging of the dialectics of nature, society, and thought as one and the same, but this ontologolization of dialectics is a mass of logical confusion. With Plekhanov this also goes by the name of monism. But to lay Plekhanov's error as one of beginning with the wrong philosophy would be to duplicate his own mistake, for there's more to it. Plekhanov makes his first mistake by bypassing Marxism--I mean Marx's approach to analyzing society and the ideological phenomena within it--in favor of analyzing the putative philosophical preconditions or foundation of Marxism--dialectical materialism. This is pure nonsense. Is this where the Soviets got this bad habit from? Another of his blunders is his crude analysis of a probably correct assertion of the petty-bourgeois basis of Neo-Kantianism, which however asserts nothing meaningful unless one proceeds beyond propaganda to explain the connection. Plekhanov combats Bernstein's empirical assertions with his own. He combats metaphysics with metaphysics, empiricism with empiricism. These two elements interplay in an entirely confused fashion. On 12/30/2010 11:29 AM, Ralph Dumain wrote: I tried checking the text at leninist.biz, but I found the Plekhanov volume impossible to navigate. I wish someone would make this correction for me, because I would like to use this quote. It looks like I already did some preliminary spadework, viz. . . . Neo-Kantianism, Its History, Influence, and Relation to Socialism: Selected Secondary Bibliography http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/neokantianism_biblio_1.html There I link to 6 articles by Plekhanov on Kantianism. That entire period in philosophy, and for decades to come in continental European philosophy, was dominated by the Neo-Kantian influence. These debates are a small part of the overall picture. On 12/30/2010 11:14 AM, Ralph Dumain wrote: I was thinking of the philosophical backwardness prevalent in the Second International. I do like this quote from Plekhanov, however: Strictly speaking, /partisan science/ is impossible, but, regrettably enough, the existence is highly possible of /scientists who are imbued with the spirit of parties and with class selfishness/. When Marxists speak of bourgeois science with contempt, it is scientists of that brand that they have in view. It is to such scientists that the gentlemen Herr Bernstein has learnt so much from belong, /viz./ J. Wolf, Schulze-Gävernitz, and many others. Even if nine-tenths of scientific socialism has been taken from the writings of bourgeois economists, it has not been taken in the way in which Herr Bernstein has borrowed from the Brentanoists and other apologists of capitalism the material he uses to revise Marxism. Marx and Engels were able to take a /critical/ attitude towards bourgeois scientists, something that Herr Bernstein has been unable or unwilling to do. When he learns from them, he simply places himself under their influence and, without noticing the fact, adopts their apologetics. Georgi Plekhanov, *Cant Against Kant, or Herr Bernstein's Will and Testament* (August 1901) http://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1901/xx/cant.htm There must be a transcription error here: so much from *belong*: doesn't make sense. On 12/30/2010 10:49 AM, c b wrote: On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.orgwrote: This is a commonplace analysis of Descartescritique of the whole epistemological tradition that came out of this. However, the disavowal of scientific realism is childish. Speaking of childish, It's worth contemplating the symbiosis between Rosa's juvenile Wittgensteinianism and sectarianism. He differs from Henry Ford in declaring that, not history, but all philosophy, is bunk. And if this doesn't show you that the British far left--if that's what he is--is not at the end of its rope, what does? Now I'm reminded that I need to take a look at Plekhanovsee if he's as bad as I'm told he is. ^^^ CB: Well, Plekhanov opposed the 1917 October insurrection. That's pretty stupid sectarian. On 12/30/2010 10:10 AM, c b wrote: That project was exemplified in Descartes' Meditations, and it laid two demands on any account of knowledge and the means to knowledge, demands that set the standard and defined the adequacy of any account. There had been urgent reasons for making those demands but the reasons were historical rather than philosophical and came from the individualistic model of humanity that played such a pivotal role in
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 09:40:33 -0500 c b cb31...@gmail.com writes: Rosa, Marxist philosophy without theses ? Without theory ? I think that claim has to be understood within the context of Wittgensteinian philosophy. For Wittgenstein the only genuine propositions are those about the external world since those are the only kinds of statements that can be confirmed or disconfirmed. Therefore, statements in mathematics and logic did not qualify as genuine propositions in Wittgenstein's view since they can be analyzed as being either tautologies if true, or contradictions if false. As Wittenstein put it in the Tractatus: - 6.1 The propositions of logic are tautologies. 6.2 Mathematics is a logical method. The propositions of mathematics are equations, and therefore pseudo-propositions. 6.3 Logical research means the investigation of all regularity. And outside logic all is accident. 6.4 All propositions are of equal value. 6.5 For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered. Later on, Wittgenstein writes: The propositions of logic therefore say nothing. (They are the analytical propositions.) 6.12 The fact that the propositions of logic are tautologies shows the formal -- logical -- properties of language, of the world. That its constituent parts connected together in this way give a tautology characterizes the logic of its constituent parts. In order that propositions connected together in a definite way may give a tautology they must have definite properties of structure. That they give a tautology when so connected shows therefore that they possess these properties of structure. 6.13 Logic is not a theory but a reflexion of the world. Logic is transcendental. Later on also: 6.113 It is the characteristic mark of logical propositions that one can perceive in the symbol alone that they are true; and this fact contains in itself the whole philosophy of logic. And so also it is one of the most important facts that the truth or falsehood of non-logical propositions can not be recognized from the propositions alone. And eventually: 6.53 The right method of philosophy would be this: To say nothing except what can be said, i.e. the propositions of natural science, i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy: and then always, when someone else wished to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had given no meaning to certain signs in his propositions. This method would be unsatisfying to the other -- he would not have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy -- but it would be the only strictly correct method. 6.54 My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world rightly. 7 Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. -- For Wittgenstein, propositions of philosophy are pseudo-propositions. At worst they nonsensical like the propositions of traditional metaphysics. At best, they turn out to be propositions of logical analysis which are still a species of pseudopropositions. Hence, that's why for Wittgenstein there cannot be theses or theories in philosophy. CB http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Obama Urges Homeowners to Refinance If you owe under $729k you probably qualify for Obama's Refi Program http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d1cbf0f10232a1dafcst01vuc ___ 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
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Guy Robinson on Thomas Kuhn
It amazes me that this rubbish is considered the cornerstone of 20th century philosophy. From formalism to the censorship of thought. Ultrasophisticated juvenalia. I can see what Rosa--is Rosa really a she or really a Rosa or Lichtenstein?--sees in this. It prevents the self-reflection of a Brittrot sectarian. On 12/30/2010 12:18 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote: On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 09:40:33 -0500 c bcb31...@gmail.com writes: Rosa, Marxist philosophy without theses ? Without theory ? I think that claim has to be understood within the context of Wittgensteinian philosophy. For Wittgenstein the only genuine propositions are those about the external world since those are the only kinds of statements that can be confirmed or disconfirmed. Therefore, statements in mathematics and logic did not qualify as genuine propositions in Wittgenstein's view since they can be analyzed as being either tautologies if true, or contradictions if false. As Wittenstein put it in the Tractatus: - 6.1 The propositions of logic are tautologies. 6.2 Mathematics is a logical method. The propositions of mathematics are equations, and therefore pseudo-propositions. 6.3 Logical research means the investigation of all regularity. And outside logic all is accident. 6.4 All propositions are of equal value. 6.5 For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered. Later on, Wittgenstein writes: The propositions of logic therefore say nothing. (They are the analytical propositions.) 6.12 The fact that the propositions of logic are tautologies shows the formal -- logical -- properties of language, of the world. That its constituent parts connected together in this way give a tautology characterizes the logic of its constituent parts. In order that propositions connected together in a definite way may give a tautology they must have definite properties of structure. That they give a tautology when so connected shows therefore that they possess these properties of structure. 6.13 Logic is not a theory but a reflexion of the world. Logic is transcendental. Later on also: 6.113 It is the characteristic mark of logical propositions that one can perceive in the symbol alone that they are true; and this fact contains in itself the whole philosophy of logic. And so also it is one of the most important facts that the truth or falsehood of non-logical propositions can not be recognized from the propositions alone. And eventually: 6.53 The right method of philosophy would be this: To say nothing except what can be said, i.e. the propositions of natural science, i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy: and then always, when someone else wished to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had given no meaning to certain signs in his propositions. This method would be unsatisfying to the other -- he would not have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy -- but it would be the only strictly correct method. 6.54 My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world rightly. 7 Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. -- For Wittgenstein, propositions of philosophy are pseudo-propositions. At worst they nonsensical like the propositions of traditional metaphysics. At best, they turn out to be propositions of logical analysis which are still a species of pseudopropositions. Hence, that's why for Wittgenstein there cannot be theses or theories in philosophy. CB http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm ___ 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
[Marxism-Thaxis] Plekhanov: materialism vs Neo-Kantianism etc. (2)
Plekhanov, Georgi. Bernstein and Materialism http://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1898/07/bernsteinmat.html (July 1898), in /Selected Philosophical Works/, Vol. II (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976), pp. 325-339. I am not versed in the relations among Spinoza, LaMettrie, the Encyclopedists, the 19th century German materialists, and Feuerbach. This part of the essay at least is not identical with the subsequent Cant Against Kant. It's quite interesting, but a few off-the-cuff remarks: (1) This has nothing to do with political debates except insofar as Plekhanov's antagonists themselves inject this silly stuff into them. (2) Plekhanov's exposition breaks off at the very point where it starts to get interesting. (3) Neither Plekhanov nor any of the people he discusses have any sense of the difference between empirical knowledge and philosophy's attempts to fill in the gaps, or how advances in the former alter what should be /provisional/ categorial structures of the latter. And, noting the footnotes, where Plekhanov describes a meeting with Engels and Engels' confirmation of Plekhanov's view of Spinoza--Plekhanov is content with finality rather than further exploration. He merely engages a contest of doctrines, but not thinking any new thoughts. (4) I know little about F.A. Lange, but one thing I know is that he wrestled with the mind-body problem and found materialism unsatisfactory. This was when biology had barely advanced to the point of addressing the question of sensation and apperception. The problem remains a problem 150 years later but in a drastically altered condition. Philosophy at best is a guidepost to how to interpret, or better, to avoid misinterpreting, our knowledge in our general categorial framework of world-meaning. (This should be opposed to Wittgenstein's retrograde cure, but that's another harangue.) (5) A key correlative logical fudge of Engels is the ambiguous, and implicitly self-contradictory, statement, that he believes only in empirical knowledge and disavows metaphysics, only to remain content with a formulation of dialectical laws and their universal application retrospective to the attainment of adequate empirical knowledge. But in actuality, this dominant strain of Marxist orthodoxy remained stagnant at the level of formulaic indoctrination, and once institutionalized, proceeded rapidly downhill. OK, I'll look at the other 4 Plekhanov essays another time. Must get on with other things. ___ 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
