[Marxism-Thaxis] Definition of materialism
The separation from Hegelian philosophy was here also the result of a return to the materialist standpoint. That means it was resolved to comprehend the real world - nature and history - just as it presents itself to everyone who approaches it free from preconceived idealist crotchets. It was decided mercilessly to sacrifice every idealist fancy which could not be brought into harmony with the facts conceived in their own and not in a fantastic interconnection. And materialism means nothing more than this. But here the materialistic world outlook was taken really seriously for the first time and was carried through consistently - at least in its basic features - in all domains of knowledge concerned. - Engels in _Ludwig Feuerbach_ ___ 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] Mary, mary
You guys obviously have a history I know nothing of, but I'm hoping this is the last I'll see of this form of discourse, emoticon notwithstanding. WL: Of course we do or could not argue as such. CB: Black Bottom up in this mother fucking emoticonical area. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Summary Essays - August WilsonMa Rainey's Black Bottom summary, essays, quotes, and pictures. www.enotes.com/ma-raineys/ - 11k - Cached - Similar pages WL: Middle finger to the law, nigga gripping my balls. If you feelin like a pimp nigga, go and brush your shoulders off Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off Niggaz is crazy baby, don't forget that boy told you Get, that, dirt off your shoulder [Verse One] I probably owe it to y'all, proud to be locked by the force Tryin to hustle some things, that go with the Porsche Feelin no remorse, feelin like my hand was forced Middle finger to the law, nigga grip'n my balls All the ladies they love me, from the bleachers they screamin All the ballers is bouncin they like the way I be leanin All the rappers be hatin, off the track that I'm makin But all the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it Came from the bottom the bottom, to the top of the pots Nigga London, Japan and I'm straight off the block Like a running back, get it man, I'm straight off the block I can run it back nigga cause I'm straight with the Roc http://www.lyrics007.com/Jay-Z%20Lyrics/Dirt%20Off%20Your%20Shoulder%20Lyrics. html WL: Of course it gets emotional. I get emotional eating a big fucking Ruben. And if the bread is toasted just right . . . I get emotional thinking about getting emotional before I start thinking about getting emotional. %#$$$^^$%$%$%$% And will argue to the death over the difference between to - a concept of proximity, and within which means you are all up in there hitting the shit out of it for all its worth. Ask my wife if there is a radical difference between to and within. Yes, . . . I am contrary on many points. I can run it back nigga . . . cause I'm straight off the block . . . the auction block. :-) Waistline ___ 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] Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Image:MaRaineyParamount.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MaRaineyParamount.jpg Gertrude Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26 , 1886 - December 22 , 1939 ), was the earliest known professional blues http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues singers 3 and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues . She did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith . Born in Columbus, Georgia , she first appeared on stage in Columbus in A Bunch of Blackberries at the age of 14. She then joined a travelling vaudeville http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaudeville troupe, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabbit_Foot_Minstrelsaction=edit . After hearing a blues song at a theater in St. Louis sung by a local girl in 1902 , she started performing in a blues style. She claimed at that time that she was the one who coined the name blues for the style that she specialized in. Musicians and singers who had sang and played in the style said there were no such origins and that the blues had always been. A pioneer in the style, Bunk Johnson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunk_Johnson said that in the 1880s the blues had already been developed.3 She married fellow vaudeville singer William 'Pa' Rainey http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_%27Pa%27_Raineyaction=ed it in 1904 , changing her name to Ma Rainey and the pair toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels as Rainey Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues, singing a mix of blues and popular songs. In 1912 , she took the young Bessie Smith into the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, trained her, and worked with her until Smith left in 1915 . Ma Rainey was already a veteran performer with decades of touring with African American shows in the U.S. Southern States when she made her first recordings in 1923. Rainey signed with Paramount Records http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Records and, between 1923 and 1928 , she recorded 100 songs, sometimes accompanied such jazz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz notables as Louis Armstrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong , Kid Ory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Ory , Fletcher Henderson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_Henderson , and others. Rainey was extremely popular among southern blacks in the 1920s , but the Great Depression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression and changing tastes ended her career by 1933 , when she retired. In 1939 , Rainey died of a heart attack . References 1. Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey by Sandra Lieb (Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1981) 2. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism by Angela Y. Davis (Pantheon, 1998) 3. The Music of Black Americans: A History. Eileen Southern . W. W. Norton Company; 3rd edition. ISBN 0393971414 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey; ___ 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] Levels of organization
^ CB: The very fact that Engels et al use two different terms - historical materialism and materialist dialectics - means they are talking about two different levels of organization. WL: Really. Let me get this right before I am accused of distorting your utterances and being contrary. 1). The very fact that Engels et al use two different terms - historical materialism and materialist dialectics 2). means 3). they are talking about two different levels of organization. of what is called Marxism. Let us assume this is true, which it is not, nor can your conclusion be called a fact. The argument is your conclusion and you further stating that historical materialism can be applied to practical questions of the day. This proposition is the meaning of economic determinism. The materialist conception of history cannot be shaped or transformed or converted into a practical program of action guiding our working class movement. It is simply not possible . . . Charles. The reason is because the fight can only really take place in what is called the superstructure rather than the economic bases or the infrastructure. Our materialist conception or materialist approach informs us of frameworks. Most Marxists make this mistake - a tendency towards economic determinism, including Marx and Engels themselves. This mistake expresses itself in being dominated by the ideas and historical forms of struggle of a previous period. The reason is bound up with cognitive functioning and the inherent inability of the mind to grasp and see emergence at the point of its emergence. OK . . . by mind, what is mean is the process of abstraction based on and rooted in our inherent power of observation. The brain is the physical organ in which the mind operates, but the mind, as used here, means our power of abstraction and deduction. You state reality has different levels. Really? What this means for me is that level means what I call dimensions. The moment our society reached a level - not dimension, of organization of production producing interactivity as a conception superseding connection inner dependence and inter dependence, I could not accept, on any level, the concept of Marxism as consisting of different levels. Society as production has levels ( I use the term stages and qualitative stages) and reality has dimensions in my view, which I do not claim is somehow the view or the fact as you do. CB: The very fact that Engels et al use two different terms - historical materialism and materialist dialectics - means they are talking about two different levels of organization. WL: Really. How flat of you. From here you run straight into various economic determinist doctrines. Let me guess. These different levels of reality are dialectically connected to one another no doubt. This mode of presentation properly belong to the period of Stalin's Dialectical and Historical Materialism, which was no more than a primer. Even the title of this thread, which you named, Levels of organization cannot be properly applied to the method and approach associated with the writings and work of Marx and Engels, which view historical materialism as one level of Marx method and approach and then dialectical materialism as a different or another level distinct from the former. CB: The very fact that Engels et al use two different terms - historical materialism and materialist dialectics - means they are talking about two different levels of organization. WL: Level of organization of what? Their approach and method? The materialist conception and approach deployed by Marx and Engels displays their articulation of the dialectic of history, from the standpoint of why and how society is moving in class antagonism. Accusing me of misquoting and distorting what you state is getting pretty old. CB: The very fact that Engels et al use two different terms - historical materialism and materialist dialectics - means they are talking about two different levels of organization. (Engels) means they (he and Marx) are talking about two different levels of organization (of what . . . human thought?) (in) The very fact that Engels use two different terms - historical materialism and materialist dialectics. This is a joke . . . right? Waistline ___ 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] Philosophy Talk Radio Show
http://www.philosophytalk.org/ ___ 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] Dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism Jump to: navigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#column-one , search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#searchInput http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mergefrom.gif It has been suggested that Marxist philosophy of nature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_philosophy_of_nature be merged into this article or section. (Discuss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dialectical_materialism ) Dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism as defined by later Communists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist and their Parties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_party (sometimes called orthodox Marxism). As the name signals, it is an outgrowth of both Hegel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel 's dialectics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic and Ludwig Feuerbach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Feuerbach 's and Karl Marx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx 's philosophical materialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism , and is most directly traced to Marx's fellow thinker, Friedrich Engels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels . It uses the concepts of thesis, antithesis and synthesis to explain the growth and development of human history. Some Marxist theorists, critical of dialectical materialism, have called for a reassessment of the place of Engels' work Dialectics of Nature in the Marxist canon. They note that the term dialectical materialism originates with Russian theorist Georgi Plekhanov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Plekhanov and that Marx preferred the term the materialist conception of history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism , which was later shortened to historical materialism by Engels. This, they argue, limits his method within a specifically human, sociological context, distinguishing it from a universalizing theory. And apart from the historical materialists, other thinkers in Marxist philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_philosophy have had recourse to the original texts of Marx and Engels and have created other Marxist philosophical projects and concepts which are alternatives, and sometimes rivals, to the often-Party-sponsored ideas of diamat (an abbreviation for dialectical materialism). While dialectical materialism has been traditionally associated almost exclusively with Marxism, some claim that the philosophy is applicable to a non-Marxist worldview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview as well. There is nothing in either the concept of dialectic as elaborated by Hegel or in materialism itself which requires Marxism. However, because Marxism is essentially free of traditional theological influences, it is particularly well-suited to dialectical materialism, and a comparable political system based on the philosophy has not yet emerged. Contents [hide javascript:toggleToc() ] * 1 Materialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#Materialism * 2 Dialectics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#Dialectics * 2.1 Laws of dialectics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#Laws_of_dialectics * 2.2 Quotation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#Quotation * 3 Selected readings on dialectical materialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#Selected_readings_on_d ialectical_materialism * 4 See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#See_also [edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dialectical_materialismaction=ed itsection=1 ] Materialism In essence, materialism answers the fundamental question of philosophy by asserting the primacy of the material world: in short, matter precedes thought. Materialism holds that the world is material, that all phenomena in the universe consist of matter in motion, wherein all things are interdependent and interconnected and develop in accordance with natural law, that the world exists outside us and independently of our perception of it, that thought is a reflection of the material world in the brain, and that the world is in principle knowable. The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought. --Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1. [edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dialectical_materialismaction=ed itsection=2 ] Dialectics Dialectics is the science of the most general laws of development of nature, society, and thought. Its principal features are as follows: 1) The universe is not an accidental mix of things isolated from each other, but an integral whole, wherein things are mutually interdependent. 2) Nature is in a state of constant motion: All nature, from the smallest thing to the biggest, from a grain of sand to the sun, from the protista to
[Marxism-Thaxis] Historical materialism
Historical materialism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. History of communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_communism Schools of communism Marxism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism · Leninism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leninism Trotskyism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trotskyism · Maoism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism Council communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_communism Religious communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_communism Communist parties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_party Communist International http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_International World Communist Movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Communist_Movement Communist revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_revolution World revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_revolution Communist states http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_state The Soviet Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union People's Republic of China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China Cuba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba · Vietnam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam Laos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos · North Korea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea Related subjects Socialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism Planned economy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_economy Historical materialism Marxism-Leninism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism-Leninism Eurocommunism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocommunism Left communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_communism Anarchist communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_communism New Left http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left Anti-communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-communism Edit this box http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Template:Communismaction=edit Historical materialism (or what Marx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx himself called the materialist conception of history - materialistische Geschichtsauffassung) is a social theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_theory and an approach to the study of history and sociology , normally considered the intellectual basis of Marxism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism . Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human history in economic , technological http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology , and more broadly, material factors, as well as the clashes of material interests among tribes, social classes and nations. It can be contrasted with other interpretations of history (which Marxists might call idealisms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism ) which attribute the causes of historical and social change primarily to politics , philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy , art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art , God http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God , or any number of other manifestations of consciousness. It centers on the notion that human life is forever changing, so that even capitalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism is a temporary institution that emerged a few centuries ago and will someday be overthrown. * 1 Development of the materialist outlook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Development_of_the_mate rialist_outlook * 2 Disclaimers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Disclaimers * 3 Historical materialism as doctrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Historical_materialism_ as_doctrine * 4 Criticisms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Criticisms * 5 Marxist beliefs about history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Marxist_beliefs_about_h istory * 6 Alienation and freedom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Alienation_and_freedom * 7 Marx and Wakefield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Marx_and_Wakefield * 8 A revision of historical materialism? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#A_revision_of_historica l_materialism.3F * 9 Commentaries on different aspects of historical and dialectical materialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Commentaries_on_differe nt_aspects_of_historical_and_dialectical_materialism * 10 Note http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Note * 11 See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#See_also * 12 External links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#External_links [edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_materialismaction=edi tsection=1 ] Development of the materialist outlook Marx and Friedrich Engels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels first developed their outlook on the dynamics of history as young
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Dialectical materialism
Encyclopedia entries like these can always be improved upon. There is one paragraph in this one which puzzles me. See below. Examples would have helped. Of course there have been philosophers interested in dialectical materialism as an ontology independent of its political marxist ramifications. Some of these were not explicit marxists; others were sympathetic; some were Marxists; some were dialectical materialists, some not. I can't think of anyone offhand who declared himself a dialectical materialist without being a Marxist. But you never know. The reader, though, can't get much sense out of this paragraph without further explanation. At 06:06 PM 1/17/2006 -0500, Charles Brown wrote: Dialectical materialism Jump to: navigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#column-one While dialectical materialism has been traditionally associated almost exclusively with Marxism, some claim that the philosophy is applicable to a non-Marxist worldview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview as well. There is nothing in either the concept of dialectic as elaborated by Hegel or in materialism itself which requires Marxism. However, because Marxism is essentially free of traditional theological influences, it is particularly well-suited to dialectical materialism, and a comparable political system based on the philosophy has not yet emerged. ___ 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] How many souls do Black Folk have ?
On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:21:31 -0500 Ralph Dumain [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I immediately thought of the Du Bois double consciousness connection BTW, I'm extremely distressed at the exploitation of King's birthday by black neocons. I had a shit fit last night watching Meet the Press and America's Black Forum. And this historian of King and the civil rights movement Taylor Branch--I don't know much about him--but he seems to be a weasel in terms of his current political perspective. I remember the case of economist, Glenn Loury (http://www.bu.edu/irsd/loury/lourybio.htm) (http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/loury.html). Almost twenty years ago, he was one of the Republican right's favorite black economists. He became famous for his denunciations of affirmative action, welfare and all the other stuff that black neocons are supposed to denounce. In fact, the Reagan Administration was about to appoint him to a government post, them he got busted for cocaine possession and that brought his career on the Republican right to a screeching halt. After that he discovered that the rightwing really is racist, he denounced some of his old rightwing friends for their embracing of Charles Murray Richard Herrnsteins' book, *The Bell Curve* which he regarded as a racist tract. Them he changed his mind concerning affirmative action and a few other issues, and so he became a born again liberal Democrat. Not that being a contributing editor to The New Republic is all that much of an improvement over being a neocon, but I guess you take your friends where you can find them. ___ 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] Dialectical materialism
On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:42:49 -0500 Ralph Dumain [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Encyclopedia entries like these can always be improved upon. There is one paragraph in this one which puzzles me. See below. Examples would have helped. Of course there have been philosophers interested in dialectical materialism as an ontology independent of its political marxist ramifications. Some of these were not explicit marxists; others were sympathetic; some were Marxists; some were dialectical materialists, some not. I can't think of anyone offhand who declared himself a dialectical materialist without being a Marxist. But you never know. The reader, though, can't get much sense out of this paragraph without further explanation. As far as I can tell the term dialectical materialism was first coined by the German worker Josef Dietzgen, who had independently arrived at political and philosophical views that were akin to those of Marx and Engels. Plekhanov is usually credited as having been responsible for popularizing the term around 1890 as a designation for the philosophical outlook that was attributed to Marx and Engels. So I think the part of the article that ascribes the term to Plekhanov ought to be cleaned up, although that seems to be a mistake that one can find in lots of respectable books. At 06:06 PM 1/17/2006 -0500, Charles Brown wrote: Dialectical materialism Jump to: navigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism#column-one While dialectical materialism has been traditionally associated almost exclusively with Marxism, some claim that the philosophy is applicable to a non-Marxist worldview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview as well. There is nothing in either the concept of dialectic as elaborated by Hegel or in materialism itself which requires Marxism. However, because Marxism is essentially free of traditional theological influences, it is particularly well-suited to dialectical materialism, and a comparable political system based on the philosophy has not yet emerged. ___ 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] Dialectical materialism
Here is the fun part. Marx is quoted as stating: Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes. --Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1. This is translated as number two of the three laws of dialectics. The three laws of dialectics are: *The law of the unity and conflict of opposites; *The law of the passage of quantitative changes into qualitative changes; *The law of the negation of the negation. Notice the difference. LOOK CLOSE. . Marx: 1). Merely quantitative differences, 2). beyond a certain point, 3). pass into qualitative changes. This is morphed into the concept of The law of the passage of QUANTITATIVE CHANGES into qualitative changes; Marx quantitative difference - (not quantitative changes), is pregnant with meaning. The word quantitative + difference embody a quality or a concept of quality, which is the meaning of difference because difference is a relationship or measure of one thing against and in contradistinction to another thing. This is the most basic meaning of the word quality. (T)he passage of quantitative changes into qualitative changes should be corrected to read the passage of merely quantitative differences into qualitative changes. Such a correction means we have at least acknowledged the concept of emergence or emergent properties and their quantitative addition to an existing process, (as being at least related to the meaning of quantitative difference) and on this basis the process, as it had existed, undergoes qualitative change or restructuring. That is why I continue to raise objection to the endless repeating that quantitative changes pass to qualitative changes. This is old hat. Twenty-five years or so later it is down right boring. Waistline ___ 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] Dialectical materialism - What!
I wrote, for about the twentieth time over the past four years, in response to by dear friend and Comrade CB: It is not accurate to say that quantity or quantitative change turns into qualitative change and quality turns into quantity because this expresses only a perceptual understanding of the approach and method of Marx and Engels. Change is not a simple shift in the balance of forces or the simple increase or decrease of the old. While contradiction is the basis for growth and development, antagonism is the basis for destruction and the rise of something new in society. More of the same thing or a quantitative increase in the dimensions of however the material factors or production are organized will never lead to a qualitative change in the productive forces. A quantitative increase in industrial application can never lead to a qualitative leap or a new quality of productive forces different from industrial implements. Quantity does not simply pass over to quality on its own in society - never. The quantitative introduction of a new quality (a quality antagonistic to the process of production, as it had existed) begins the leap or transition to a new qualitative state of development of production. The new quality develops quantitatively and, through a step-by-step process, disrupts and destroys whatever previously held the process of production together, as a system of reproduction. Quantitative differences pass into qualitative change. Still one has to explain or explore the emergence of that which is the different quantitative addition or difference. I do not clim this is the last word in Marxism or even a fact or right for that matter. I do asert that what I have written - again, makes more common sense that repeating a thousand times quantitative change turns into qualitative change. By common sense I mean the sense that is more than less common to our society as it begins its passage from the industrial epoch and industrial modes of logic. Waistline ___ 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
