File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2001/bhaskar.0107, message 48


Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 22:58:10 +0100
From: Mervyn Hartwig <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: BHA: Idealism, etc.


Dear Carrol,

Who has killed God if not the modern bourgeoisie and their ideologists?
Who gave birth to modern materialism? Your ruling class, nowadays, knows
no other god than money and power. Do you want to go on being their sub-
plot?

Mervyn

Carrol Cox <cbcox-AT-ilstu.edu> writes
>
>
>Mervyn Hartwig wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Ruth,
>> 
>> Many thanks for chiming in. This gives us a lot to go on with.
>> 
>> I agree that the old dispute between idealism and materialism is about
>> what things are at bottom or essentially.
>> 
>> You want to uphold the possibility of materialism. However, I'm not sure
>> that defining 'materialism' negatively, by reference to idealism, would
>> help your case:
>> 
>> >by "materialism" we mean not "reality ultimately reduces to
>> >concrete bits of stuff," but rather "reality is at bottom non-ideational,"
>> 
>> Wouldn't this run the risk of conceding Hegel's point that 'realism
>> [read 'materialism'] is only the Sancho Panza of idealism', ie its flip
>> side? (Pinkard, Hegel 377).
>
>This is a matter of linguistic history grounded in the dominance of
>ruling-class view(s) of the world. A more gross example: the need to use
>a negative word (atheism) for what ought to be the given, the tacitly
>assumed, the premise from which one starts out. It ought to be necessary
>to _assume_ atheism as the premise from which one argues for
>non-atheism. That is, the fundamental incoherence of all arguments for
>religion is hidden by a history which (falsely) places the burden of
>proof on the "non"-believer.
>
>The same goes for materialism and idealism. Materialism should be the
>given, with all burden of proof placed on those who would deny it. And
>what burden of proof _means_ is that the 'opponent' need not even reply.
>(As in a criminal case, where in principle no defense needs to be put
>on.)
>
>Carrol
>
>
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-- 
Mervyn Hartwig
13 Spenser Road
Herne Hill
London SE24 ONS
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 7 737 2892
Email: mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk


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