Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 20:12:19 +0100
From: Colin Wight <Colin.Wight-AT-aber.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: BHA: one last try


Hi Viren

the minute you say  :

  Strictly speaking, it would seem that the minute that some x
>becomes an object, it is in the transitive realm, since, we must conceive
>of the object under certain categories. 

But the object would not necessarily be an object in thought, it would
still exist independent of thought. So it is quite incorrent to say that
the minute some x becomes an object it is in the intransitive realm. It is
correct to say that if it becomes an object of thought it exists. From
exissting it can be either a transitive obect (if it is the thought (or
some other construct) of an object, or an intransitive object, if the
thought itself becomes the object of another thought about it. There is
simply no puzzle here.

So it seems that something can be
>an intransitive object in the transitive realm.  

No, I would put it that transitive objects can become intransitive objects
to other sciences of them. Indeed this is exactly what happens with say
Positivism. Positivism is a theory of science. As\ such it is a transitive
object (Positivism) the intransitive object of which is the practice of
science. But positivism, as a transitive object can be the intransitive
object of a second order discourse that takes as its object theories of
science as opposed to the prcatice of science.

In fact, would it be false
>to say that there are "objects" in the transitive realm? 

yes, Bhaskar calls them transitive objects.

cheers,


============================================

Dr. Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Wales
SY23 3DA
Tel: (01970) 621769 


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