File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_1999/bhaskar.9906, message 16


Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 10:04:52 -0500
From: Carrol Cox <cbcox-AT-ilstu.edu>
Subject: Re: BHA: the book




Karl Maton wrote:

> At the
> present there is much biological importation within the social sciences
> (such as this notion of the 'meme'.  Hmmmm).

Such importation of biology serves only chaos and bad thought, but it
should be distinguished from recognition of the *results* of biological
and geological science, particularly the long established facts of the long
period that intervened between the beginning of life on this planet and the
first appearance (just a few minutes ago) of biologically modern humans.

I say this because I am currently reading (or at least attempting to read)
Judith Butler's *Bodies that Matter*, and her *apparent* presentation
of a historical account (present as history) of the emergence of the
individual (she says subject) from a matrix of social relations is wholly
undercut by her studied refusal to recognize, what might be called her
willed ignorance, of the fact that that "matrix of social (she says gendered)
relations must itself have a history. That necessity can only be satisfied
by a recognition as given the facts of biological and geological investigation.
The sciences of biology, geology, and paleontology are much less apt
to generate idealist fantasies than is the science of physics.

Carrol




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

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005