Subject: BHA: Re: Philosophy & History & Politics
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 21:23:56 -0500


Hi Gary--

Interesting meditations on Bukharin and Unhappy Consciousness.  But I'm a
little puzzled, so I'd appreciate some clarification.  It seems to me that
you end up classing any instance of theory/practice contradiction as
(leading to) Unhappy Consciousness.  Do I have that right?  Assuming (for
the sake of discussion) that I read you correctly, that seems awfully broad:
Who (especially among leftists) *doesn't* live with T/P conflicts of some
sort every day?  Isn't that sort of inevitable in a context of capitalist
alienation?  In any case you don't seem to give sufficient weight to the
important qualifications Bhaskar puts into his definition:

>"Scepticism, or theory/practice inconsistency, or more generally
>categorical error aware of itself, SEEKING REFUGE, in the case of reality,
>IN ASCETICISM or OTHER-WORLDLINESS and, in respect of power2 relations in,
>for example INTROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION with the master's ideology or
>projective ABSORPTION IN A FANTASY WORLD made for slaves.

It's not clear to me how Bukharin's protestations fit this model.  Thanks,
T.

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




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