From: Tobin Nellhaus <nellhaus-AT-gwi.net>
Subject: BHA: Re: great minds think alike
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 09:45:46 -0500


Gary--

Actually, I fully concur with you that *Dialectic* is brimming with ideas and
extremely valuable (and for a number of similar reasons).  I find myself
refering to it frequently, and at times have given up putting it back on the
shelf and just left it in arm's reach on the shelf.  In my posts here I've
probably cited it far more often than any of his other works.  But--I still
wouldn't make it anyone's first encounter with Bhaskar.  Getting past
positivism and poststructuralist conventionalism are themselves sizable
challenges, and unpleasant experiences can do a lot of damage.  (I still
thank the stars that I'd already become a marxist and a supporter of feminism
when I had my first marxist-feminist professor, or I never would have given
either one a second thought.  She was thoroughly horrific.  --She was in film
too, Gary: I hope sado-masochism isn't a disciplinary requirement!)

I'd agree with Ruth that *Dialectic* marks a new stage in RB's thought.  My
Numero Uno recommendation for how to read it is Slowly, and without worry a
whole lot that you understand every word.  It sinks in.

I love the T-shirt idea, Gary.  An old friend of mine in Florida runs a
T-shirt print shop, maybe we could make some for those attending the CR
conference in August!

---
Tobin Nellhaus
nellhaus-AT-gwi.net
"Faith requires us to be materialists without flinching": C.S. Peirce


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