From: "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-gwi.net>
To: <bhaskar-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU>
Subject: Re: BHA: Base & Superstructure
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 08:24:51 -0400


Yo, Howard, slow down a bit, take me with you.  You had written (and again I
quote it), "Events are a consequence of a conjuncture of mechanisms, not at
all exclusively 'economic.'"  This says that not all mechanisms are economic,
yes?  That events emerge from a variety of mechanisms, some economic and some
not?  And if you are saying that "base" means mechanisms, then doesn't this
mean the "base" is not exclusively economic?  If that's not your meaning,
evidently I misunderstood the point of your discussion about emergence.

As for confusing events and mechanisms, I don't see how the charge applies--I
hadn't said a word about events, only about the plurality of fundamental
social mechanisms.

Speaking of which, since language use involves appropriating nature (waggling
my tongue, chipping at rock, scribbling on paper, hammering at a keyboard),
is it economic in your broader sense?  Likewise sex: people appropriate their
own body and (frequently) another's.  Seems like a pretty important
appropriation of nature.

I haven't gotten to the next/current section of RTS yet, sorry.  Soon I hope.

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


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