Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:57:50 -0400
Subject: Re: BHA: More On: Progressive sociology (small notices)


Hi Bwanika,

You have hit upon an interesting feature of the intransitive/transitive 
distinction.  That which is "socially constructed" is in the transitive 
dimension.  (In DPF (p. 400) Bhaskar says that the transitive or 
"epistemological dimensions of science . . . must logically be extended to 
include the whole material and cultural infrastructure of society.")  Yet, 
once it becomes history, a past event, a socially constructed reality 
enters into the realm of the intransitive -- it cannot be altered by our 
thinking about it differently, or saying different things about it.  Of 
course, there are those who deny this, who claim that since the past 
"exists" only in our texts and our memories, it changes as our memories and 
texts change.

Dick

At 07:26 AM 07/18/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Sociology a science ?
>
>And we just imagine that (a)practical order (b) natural order (c) social 
>order intersect somewhere some how - how could then should argue that 
>indeed there is a paradigmatic moment in the human scientific project?
>
>I ask in wake of my narrow familiarity with science- which does actually 
>seem a very illusive project in regard to human affairs (economic - man).
>
>In the 'Philosophy and the Idea of Freedom' Bhaskar Roy writes, thus ? 
>"what we are told in revolutionary science are new- revolutionary- 
>stories(intransitive dimensions) about the causes of natural phenomena. 
>Moreover in social life the principle of existential intransitivity holds 
>just the same. Thus redescribing the past in a revolutionary way can cause 
>radical new changes, including a new sense of identity, self-definition or 
>auto-biography. But it cannot retrospectively cause old changes , i.e. 
>alter the past as distinct from its interpretation. (1991:11)"
>
>He goes on to right ? that the notation of intransitive objects of 
>inquiry, as distinct from transitive result? To make sense of ( a) our 
>cognitive practices (the ways we change and augment the planks in the 
>boat); (b) the uses of knowledge (the cognition- dependent activities- 
>fishing, ferrying, cruising- in which we seafarers engage; and (c) the 
>historical formation of the sciences (the process by which the boat got 
>built in the first place and might yet get sunk). (1991: 13)
>
>
>Here is the link
>
>http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/psn/2001/msg00676.html
>
>bwanika.
>
>--
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>____________
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>Bwanika
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>url: http://www.uganda.co.ug
>e-mail: dbbwanika-AT-netscape.net
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