From: "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-gwi.net>
Subject: Re: BHA: m o  r  e    p r  o  l  o  n  g   i   n   g
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 08:44:37 -0400


Howdy, Colin--

Well, I for one am quite willing to call a ceasefire at this point (assuming
here I have the power to declare, and undeclare, war!).

I'd like just to pursue one matter, because of its broader philosophical
interest:
 
> >  in this sense, yes, social structures are rock bottom, and I
> >suspect you will have to agree, on pain of reductivism.  
> 
> You see, this is where I disagree. Reductivism does not threaten, since I
> too accept that these structures have powers that are irreducible to the
> elements out of which they are composed. But the point is do they have the
> powers that their elements have? (the answer to this may be yes and no, and
> seems to me to be an empirical matter, for it is concievable that an
> emergent entity may have the same powers as its elements plus a surplus,
> although I can't think of an example now). Even if we discover a set of
> social relations which make certain actions possible and/or necessary we
> have not reached rock bottom, because we can always ask why do these
> relations (structures exist) and the circle of inquiry begins again. That
> is, these structures become what we must explain

You're quite right that we can always step "back" and ask "why do these
relations (structures) exist"; the only point I want to clarify is that in
asking such a question, we are primarily interested in an ontic issue--that
is, we are seeking an ontically "deeper" level of (say) more fundamental
entities and processes, not an ontologically "realer" level.

Oh yes, and I've meant to say that your argument about levels of analysis and
the mistaken inference that states necessarily mediate all international
relations for individuals is right on the nose, from my perspective.

Okay, I can shut up now.  Cheers!

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


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