Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 22:51:34 -0600 (CST)
From: MACDONAK-AT-Meena.CC.URegina.CA


 Anthony Beck <100764.1051-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Formulaic Practices
::I am at a loss to know why muscle power is euphemistic.  Consider if you will
::the LAPD use of muscle power.  I feel that capital is essentially symbolic in
::B.'s usage and that this is limiting.  Further and separately I see as a 
::problem that field and capital are structures, if you will langue - without 
::parole, without action.

I had written a "great" retort, however, there were problems with my account
and everything was lost (I also lost access to pieces of mail on my system
which is why everything is being sent sans subject)..

In short you want to collapse labour power and capital.  Muscle can never be
capital in that 1) it is not created, 2) which means it can't be accumulated,
and 3) it can't be contested over.  Muscle-power is an attribute of the
individual.  Even economists have detailed this distinction (the field that B.
borrowed the terms from)

And yes they are structures, however they are both langue and parole at the
same time.  They govern the actions of person and at the same time give meaning
and understanding as well as interaction with others.

::Anthont Beck.
::And speaking of structure, the familiar problems of structuralism of limits 
::also seem to arise in talking about field and capital.

Which would be what?

::So far as tone is concerned, this raises the question of what one is doing.
::From Plato to JLAustin the appeal of philosophising consists partly in 
::something felt about discourse as much as something thought.

These little quips mean nothing.  It is akin to using quotations in one's
arguement.  What has "tone" have to do with "doing",  or with "appeaal" or even
"discourse".  

How do we know this to be true?  Have they all said something to the effect "I
like philosophy 'cause I'm really turned on by discouse."?  Not to be
excessively flippant, but one can argue that there a lot of other reasons that
can be offered, and not all of them in such a causal relationship.