Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 18:30:10 +1000
Subject: Re: Critique of Badiou


Eric/All,

I couldn't get interested in Badiou, but endorse your comment below.  I
remember reading much the same in Kaplan's "In Pursuit of Wisdom", and that
he quoted Wm. James.  Unfortunately I don't have the book for specifics.

"mediation of others" makes sense, but the capitalized metaphysical "Other"
that obsesses
so many nowadays, seems to be another of those words that means anything and
everything to anybody and everybody.

> and someone who is an interesting philosopher in his own right was
> George Herbert Mead.  His contribution was to place all of this into a
> social context.  Mead distinguishes between the 'I' and 'me' and points
> out that one becomes a person only through the mediation of others