File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2001/bhaskar.0102, message 2


From: "Erik Weissengruber" <epweissengruber-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: BHA: Lurker suggests caution
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 11:26:59 -0500


<html><DIV>
<P>I think the LAST thing the list should do is take up FEW</P>
<P>I am a theatre historian and literary scholar.  I need a solid epistemological framework to guide my historical and hermeneutic work.  DFP and RTS help me with this, and Archer's work as well.  The last thing I want to deal with is occultism, the persistence of the soul, and other matters.</P>
<P>Does god exist?  I don't care.</P>
<P>Do we reincarnate?  I don't care.</P>
<P>That is why I suggested turning the lists' attention towards Archer's new book, and tie it to DPF or other Bhaskar themes.</P>
<P>I want to hear about the good work on CR being done by the participants on the list.  Lets keep the spirits out of this.<BR><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>From: Jan Straathof <JANSTR-AT-CHAN.NL>
<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu 
<DIV></DIV>>To: bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu 
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: BHA: Delivered up to the world 
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 01:50:01 +0100 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>>Hi All, 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>>Howard, you wrote: 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>> >I wonder if this is a Eurocentric view: 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>>yes, i think you're right about this, Adorno wrote his Minima 
<DIV></DIV>>Moralia (between 1944-1951/dedicated to Max Horkheimer) 
<DIV></DIV>>with an europian/western audience in mind; and the 9 theses 
<DIV></DIV>>against occultism, which comprise only a small part (6 pags.) 
<DIV></DIV>>of the book, are illustrated by commonly know (but, by no 
<DIV></DIV>>means exclusive) europian/western occult practices like, as 
<DIV></DIV>>he mentions: "astrology, crystal-gazery, visionaries, animism, 
<DIV></DIV>>number-mysticism, terrestrial radiation, dansing tables, psychic 
<DIV></DIV>>media, astral bodies". [The fact that Adorno doesn't offer any 
<DIV></DIV>>formal definition of occultism in his piece might indicate that 
<DIV></DIV>>his objective was not scientific scrutinity, but a sign of warning 
<DIV></DIV>>or contemplation? -- afterall the whole aforistic composition of 
<DIV></DIV>>the Moralia is typically in style of western culture-critique -- 
<DIV></DIV>>it bites, it's like reading a Nietzschian from a Marxist/Freudian 
<DIV></DIV>>Universe :-) 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>> >Also, I get the impression that in the third 
<DIV></DIV>> >world progressives are much more comfortable to consider themselves at once 
<DIV></DIV>> >communist and voodoun, etc. I have no doubt there are deeply reactionary 
<DIV></DIV>> >strains of occultism. They are not hard to find. I wonder if we always 
<DIV></DIV>> >want to paint with as broad a brush. Compare, for example, the way 
<DIV></DIV>> >traditional medicine has been so often suppressed by the west. This was 
<DIV></DIV>> >not Marx's way. If there is in the old worth preserving, you do it. Or 
<DIV></DIV>> >imagine taking marxism to indigenous people anywhere without being ready to 
<DIV></DIV>> >make some fine discriminations. 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>>i agree, but could (should) we, in line with Bhaskar's usages of 
<DIV></DIV>>power1 and power2, try to distinguish between occultism1 and 
<DIV></DIV>>occultism2, whereby occultism2 is the regressive/oppressive form, 
<DIV></DIV>>and occultism1 the one found speculatively implied, and elaborated 
<DIV></DIV>>on, in the scope of EW ? 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>>yours, 
<DIV></DIV>>Jan 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>> 
<DIV></DIV>> --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- 
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