From: vvmurthy-AT-uchicago.edu
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 20:20:17 -0600
Subject: Re: BHA: concrete utopia is materially located


Hi Phil,

I enjoyed your comments as well, but I am little unclear about what 
you mean by "substance not only sets limits on where subject can 
go, but substance also at certain levels shows subject where to go." 
Many people read Hegel as combining Spinoza`s conception of 
substance with Kant`s idea of subjectivity (eg Stephen Houlgate), but 
I think it would be interesting to think about this question in relation 
to the problem of structure and agency.  Is "substance" structure or 
agency, or is it a type of mix, something like Bourdieu`s structuring 
structures.  I guess much of this would become clear if you could 
explain at which levels and how the substance tells the subject where 
to go.

Viren


> Phil Walden wrote:
> 
> > Hi Mervyn,
> >
> >
> >
> > I would criticize the definition of concrete utopianism you are 
offering
> > on the grounds that it does not make it clear that concrete 
utopia is
> > materially located.  When Ernst Bloch introduced the concept of 
concrete
> > utopia into human discourse he did so in relation to an extensive
> > reading of the work of Hegel and Marx.  Bloch protested against 
the view
> > that human desires, aspirations, and emotions are irrelevant to 
Marxist
> > method.  For Bloch we always start with fantasy (about the 
future) - but
> > the point is that he is saying that *fantasy is located within class
> > relations* and is therefore materially located.  It cannot 
therefore be
> > non-material.
> >
> >
> >
> > Or at a deeper philosophical level, Bloch's concrete utopia is 
located
> > within a Hegelian paradigm according to which substance not only 
sets
> > limits on where subject can go, but substance also at certain 
levels
> > shows subject where to go.  So it is not just that concrete utopia 
is
> > naturalistically grounded in a Kantian sense - as you correctly 
point
> > out - but it is also grounded in a Hegelian sense in terms of 
objective
> > idealism's grasp of the movement of history (in this sense Hegel 
was a
> > dialectical materialist avant la lettre).
> >
> >
> >
> > What would be a shame is if the dictionary follows the currently
> > conventional wisdom within academia - which is to gut Hegel of his
> > revolutionary content (or not even mention him) and substitute a
> > non-materialist and inoffensive naturalist Kantian position - and
> > thereby commits a serious crime against humanity in the name of
> > maintaining "academic respectability".
> >
> >
> >
> > Phil Walden
> >
> > --- StripMime Warning --  MIME attachments removed ---
> > This message may have contained attachments which were 
removed.
> >
> > Sorry, we do not allow attachments on this list.
> >
> > --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
> > multipart/alternative
> >   text/plain (text body -- kept)
> >   text/html
> > ---
> >
> >      --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 




     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---