Rod Hay wrote: > I don't want to go to a system of relations without causation because there > is one causal relation that it is very important not to ignore--human > purposeful activity, the will, human agency, etc. (what ever you want to > call it) The political consequences are passivity, hopelessness, dispair. > > ... Again the difference is human will-- > a creative force that can not be explained by natural forces. Despite > repeated claims that it is purely material. (Those claims are merely > statements of faith). > > ... So I will continue to make the distinction and I will continue to look for > > causation in human society. ____________ I'm glad you brought this up, Rod. By introducing human "will", which cannot be explained by natural forces, as the original cause in the explanation of human society, you have simply and neatly thrown your 'materialist thesis' out of the window. A materialist thesis would rather not grant such autonomy to the mysterious human "will". Who does the willing, by the way? A subject, only a subject can will. But what is a subject? A subject is a product of a socio-historical context--his/her subjectivity that directs his/her willing is not at all autonomous (remember? "man is ensemble of social relations"). It can only be understood in the socio-historical (i.e., various other relations of production, culture and politics, etc.) context. Thus we are back to the relational and horizontal epistemology rather than the causal and vertical epistemology where things are arranged one on top of the other with the bottom one being always mysterious and unexplainable. I think an epistemology based on causation must in the end take shelter in some kind of spiritualism. Cheers, ajit sinha > > > Rod Hay > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > The History of Economic Thought Archives > http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html > Batoche Books > http://members.tripod.com/rodhay/batochebooks.html > http://www.abebooks.com/home/BATOCHEBOOKS/ > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
