From: cbcox-AT-rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Carrol Cox)
Subject: Re: M-I:*The* Unconscious; was Marxists on desire
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 12:34:24 -0600 (CST)


    On Tuesday, Nov 12 Jon Beasley-Murray, referring to a marxist
theory of desire as false consciousness, adds, "Yet, of course,
desire is more properly a matter of the unconscious."

    I tend to think of "desire" as more properly an observation,
having in itself no particular status as either false consciousness
or object of political theory. But however that may be, the "of
course" in Jon's sentence is wholly illicit, in that the very
existence of some spooky subject called "the unconscious" is subject
to debate. As far as I know, no one has _ever_ advanced any substantial
reason why we should entertain "the unconscious" as having any
existence as an object or subject of study. Any arguments for it
I have seen (and I more or less gave up looking for or even noting
new ones about a decade or so ago) merely assumes its existence and
goes on to make various sweeping statements about it. Reading psycho-
analytic theory or arguments is almost enough to turn one into
a Popperian. And, "of course," if the unconscious has no existence,
it can hardly be the location of desire or anything else.
    Carrol


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