From: "Günter Minnerup" <g.minnerup-AT-unsw.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 22:23:48 +1000
Subject: Re: BHA: de novo and ex nihilo


On Thu, 19 Sep 2002 12:40:04 +0100, Mervyn Hartwig wrote:

>The theme of creativity ex nihilo imo addresses inter alia the important
>issue, raised here a little while ago by Guenter, about how we get
>across the transitive/intransitive divide. Pre-dialecticized CR has been
>very strong on what lies on the other side of the divide in the sense of
>the general contours of a philosophical ontology, but not at all strong
>on the epistemological side of things about how it is possible to get
>there such that we provisionally make real discoveries - fallibilist,
>anti-foundational and rejecting (in its Bhaskarian version at any rate)
>of correspondence theories of truth as it is.  *Dialectic*, as I
>understand it, among other things sets out to remedy this by elaborating
>an epistemological dialectic (i.e. re the praxis of science, to connect
>with Guenter), 

Hmmm, can I ask for some clarification here (and I have read beyond the quoted paragraph...)? I'm not sure what "praxis of science" means here. Science, 
as I understand it, is a "subdivision" of human practice, and to attempt to overcome the transitive/intransitive - or, ontology/epistemology, which seems to 
me the same in this context (in reverse order, of course) - divide by purely scientific praxis sounds a bit like the old Baron Munchhausen's attempt to extract 
himself from the mud by his hair. Don't we need a wider concept of praxis here, i.e. humanity's (not just science's) interaction with nature? In the sense that 
no scientific procedure alone (neither experiment nor mathematics nor logical consistency) can in itself prove the truth of a scientific proposition, but only its 
successful application to external reality?
While I'm writing, thanks to you and Jamie for your interest in reading the chapter I mentioned. I'll email it to both of you, off list, soon.

Günter

Günter Minnerup
Visiting Fellow
Centre for European Studies/School of History
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
Tel. (+61 2) 9385 1363 (work)
Tel. (+61 2) 9398 3646 (home)
Email g.minnerup-AT-unsw.edu.au




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