File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2004/bhaskar.0409, message 44


Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:30:12 +0200
From: Par Engholm <Par.Engholm-AT-soc.uu.se>
Subject: Re: BHA: Polyadization


Hi Mervyn,

I don't really know, but I could imagine it being formed in conjunction 
(though not constant) with dyadization (DPF 230). Bhaskar proceeds to 
describe the condtion of the formation of agency (as opposed to solipsistic 
accounts) as

'After referential detachment of material objects and in the context of 
indviduation within the primary polyad comes the recognition that the 
referent has causal powers of its own. At this point there occurs the first 
acknowledgement of axiological necessity and what I have been calling, in a 
deliberate echo of Freud, the "reality principle".'

Bhaskar formulates the argument against identity theories, of which 
solipsism is but one conspicuous example, from the ontogeny of the child, 
and its experience of lack, of otherness, which is forced upon it as it 
experiences and gradually becomes aware of the simultaneous absence (of the 
mother as a part of the world) and her presence as another. This primary 
(existential, experiential and primitive) detachment of an embryonal 
conception of the self from the immediate surrounding (the mother - which 
hitherto has been identified with the self, or, rather with an amormphous 
sense of all-embracing-ness) constitutes itself as a self in just this 
primary dyadization, the distinction between itslef  and the mother. 
Nevertheless this is further stretched  to include other recognisable 
objects in a continuing polyadization. Bhaskar accordingly speaks of this 
process as initially a matter of experience and later on of recognition as 
this differentiation (my term) of the world progresses and more objects 
becomes existentially detached. Bhaskar formulates  this in terms of 
'desire, lack or absence' as 'intuitive acts of referential detachment', 
and we may perhaps stretch this intuitive act as also necessary steps not 
only for this reality principle to have effect, but also and the 
distinction between our knowledge of the world and the world itself. Our 
experiential and conceptual, perceptional and cognitive world becomes 
separated, detached referentially from the subjective experiences of others 
as well as from the world itself. Bhaskar's point, I think, is to stress 
the continutities from this primary ontogenetic formation of the self as 
something distinct from its enironment and the transcendental impossibility 
of upholding a position of identity (of object/subject; 
ontology/epistemology; intransitive/transitive etc)...

Then of course we have the notion of polyads in chemistry, where sets of 
molecular states are connected by vibratory resonances (as to exhibit 
symmetries) - so it could have something to do with different patterns, 
dynamics and symmetries found in molecular structures, though I doubt it. 
But you could perhaps find something if you search into Hamiltonian 
dynamical systems... and you could have a look at  the following page for 
some leads...
http://pca3.univ-littoral.fr/~sadovski/sci-work.html

Best regards,
Pär


At 22:10 2004-09-16, you wrote:
>Can anyone help re the etymology of polyadization (as in 'primary 
>polyadization')? Not in my Concise OED, Websters online, etc.
>
>*Poly* is Greek for 'many', but what about the rest? Is the word formed 
>after monad (Gr. *monas*, a unit) and dyad (Gr. *dyas*, two) + poly?
>
>Or is *polyas* a Greek word meaning perhaps 'many units'? (It's not in my 
>small Greek dictionary). Does it have any connection with the 'polyas 
>problem-solving method' in maths?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mervyn
>
>
>
>     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

-----------------------------------------------------------
Par Engholm; Par.Engholm-AT-soc.uu.se
Uppsala University, Dept. of Sociology
Box 624; SE-751 26 Uppsala; SWEDEN
Phone: +46 18 471 7399; Fax: +46 18 471 1170
Home: Botvidsgatan 14 B; SE-753 27 Uppsala
Phone: +46 (0)18 696348; Mobile: +46 709 783546
http://www.soc.uu.se/staff/par_e.html


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