Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 03:19:12 -0800 (PST)
To: bhaskar-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: BHA: AESTHETICS: BLOCH & BHASKAR?


Today (Saturday) I attended a local bookstore to see two editors of a new
collection of essays from Verso on Ernest Bloch called NOT YET on their book
promotion tour, along with the author of another Verso book called
MILLENNIAL DREAMS.  Having read nothing by Bloch, I wanted to take this
opportunity to learn something about him and about recent developments in
Bloch scholarship.  Also, the book has a contribution on detective fiction
by our very own Tim Dayton.

I only learned a little about Bloch but I was intrigued by his concern with
the not-yet and his discrimination amongst various brands of utopianism.
Bloch's search for that which does not yet exist but which is half-expressed
in cultural forms is something very dear to me.  It reminds me of my own
perspective on culture as well as C.L.R. James's notion of the dialectical
unity of the actual and potential, which inspired him in the 1940s as he
launched into the investigation of American popular culture.

It would seem that the use here of Bhaskar's notion of "absence" is quite
similar to Bloch's notion of the "not-yet".  What perturbs me, however, is
not only the seeming lack of originality of Bhaskar's "absence", but the
lack of articulation in connection with Bhaskar's overall ontology and
epistemology in application to aesthetics.  As I stated in my last post, a
free-floating concern with "absence" doesn't say all that much in itself nor
does it lead in and of itself to any profound analysis.

There are of course a lot of academics of this list, esp. from the
humanities and social sciences, which accounts for its pervasive mediocrity
as well as the sanctimonious hysterical howling that occurs whenever inbred,
insecure academic second-raters and charlatans are exposed for what they
are.  However, I thought this list existed for the discussion of real ideas,
so I am still waiting for evidence of devotion to scholarship that the
craven hackademics purportedly crave.  Surely there are others out there who
are not going to be be intimidated by the P.C. hypocrites.  Since we are all
so concerned about accountability, let's hold _them_ accountable for their
lies, their slanders, their threats, their dishonesty, their mediocrity,
their lack of scholarly standards, and their hypocrisy.  But better yet,
let's deal with the real issues.  Let's get to the bottom of what this
Bhaskar is all about and determine if there really is anything original and
profound there, esp. as he moves from traditional philosophy of science into
larger areas.

So I ask again: what else does Bhaskar have to offer aesthetics but a vague
notion of "absence", which hardly seems to be either profound or original in
comparison with others dealing with comparable concepts.



     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---