Subject: Re: Crucial Questions on Life Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 18:09:26 +0200 <html><div style='background-color:'><DIV> <P><BR>Oh well... I guess we should at least thank Berk for awakening the list. I am a simple sociologist, and the tradition of relational realism I feel close to (from Marx to Bhaskar and Bourdieu) has been highly suspicious of (if not hostile to) smuggled-in Cartesianisms like psychologism or rational choice theory (eew!) or other forms of subjectivism which are so common in social scientific research. And personally, I find most philosophies of mind unappealing for my research questions or political position-takings.</P> <P>However, out of curiosity, I once delved into the neverending debates on "consciousness" (and if you think "Homo Academicus", there is a rich sociology of the field of scientific production where bioevolutionists, philosophers, cognitive psychologists, microbiologists, neurologists, information theorists, etc. fight bloody battles on this topic). I can't say I was ambitious or willing enough to understand the whole clash of paradigms, but I thought Daniel Clement Dennett's take on the subject was appealing.</P> <P>His 1991 book "Consciousness Explained" and 1993 book "Content and Consciousness" created a lot of controversy inside the field, where he defended a strictly materialist explanation of consciousness (rejecting ALL forms of metaphysics, from those recycled mind-body paradigms to those which assign an unexplained ontological status to "emotions", "thoughts", etc.). I won't try to summarize the argument here (it's too complex for my simple sociological mind anyway), but Berk, you might want to look for answers in Dennett's work. Also check his "Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Mind". Dennett is not a Marxist (as far as I know, but the Marxist in me agreed with what he had to say most of the time) and is sociologically almost illiterate. But his devastating challenge to still very strong Cartesian paradigms inside evolution studies, neurology, cybernetics, etc. is important.</P> <P>Emrah Goker, Department of Sociology, Columbia University</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href='http://go.msn.com/bql/hmtag_itl_EN.asp'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></html> ********************************************************************** Contributions: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Commands: majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Requests: bourdieu-approval-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
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