Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 13:32:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Carl Davidson <cdavidson-AT-igc.apc.org> Subject: Re: M-I: re: Chaos/Bhaskar/Marxism I suggest taking a lot at Robert Pirsig's "Lila", his sequel tp "Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," for some interesting ideas on the Patterns of the Universe. Pirsig makes the first cut "dynamic" vs "static", rather than "subject / object" or "matter / motion". I wouldn't be put off by Pirsig's literary form--he's a deep thinker on these matters. Carl Davidson, Chicago. At 09:01 PM 7/3/97 GMT, Chris Burford wrote: > >I cannot safely join you on the ground of post modern >thinkers but I will try to respond to your comments about >chaos theory: > >Deb: > >The terms in which the objective >world is presented by chaos theory--and those terms in the main >posit the objective world as brute matter--provide the basis for >bourgeois knowledges. > > >Chris: > >I do not recognise this way of putting it, that the objective >world is "brute matter". Chaos theory seems completely compatible >to me with a Leninist view about the universe being "matter in >motion". I am not sure about the nuances behind the word "brute". >The shifting but regular patterns of chaos, like the veins in >a leaf, or the motion of waves on a sea-shore or in an inlet, >are neither brute nor human. They are material and have to >my mind a beauty. Perhaps it is rather fundamental that we >have to recognise patterns, and the patterns of the >universe are tantalisingly similar but not identical, and >every so often the pattern becomes disrupted. > >But that too has its patterning. > >Bhaskar's fundamental question (from memory) "what must >the universe be like such that we can have scientific ideas >about it?" - seems to me to be a universe of matter in >repetitive motion interacting in non-(recti)-linear ways, sometimes >in conformity with chaos theory, sometimes with complexity >theory. > >I do not recognise chaos theory explaining the instabilities of >capitalism as due to "external perturbation". It does not >seem to me to be a "bourgeois model of change." > >I do not accept that >" conjoining chaos theory with Marxism would be only >the latest in the series of attempts to "develop" Marxism known as >"analytical Marxism". I am wary of the lack of dialectics in >analytical marxism. > >I do not intend to be combative but to state that my perspectives >feel different to yours. > >I will appreciate your summarising and then commenting >on the articles by Harvey and Reed. > >Chris Burford > >London > > > > --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- > > Keep On Keepin' On --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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