File spoon-archives/marxism-theory.archive/marxism-theory_1997/marxism-theory.9712, message 44


From: M Salter1 <MSalter1-AT-aol.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 11:47:48 EST
Subject: Re: MT: BLOCH, SCHELLING, & BHASKAR


In a message dated 26/12/97 06:15:37 GMT, Ralph writes:

<< 
 Speaking of Bloch's ontology of not-yet-being, I don't get it.  Hudson's
 description os rather vague (as is Bloch's?), but despite the fact that the
 ontology of what does not yet exist strikes me as a contradiction in terms,
 the notion is intriguing, but I fail to see how it can be productively
 incorporated into a non-mystical philosophy.  Maybe somebody else can
 explain this aspect of Bloch's philosophy; I can't figure it out.
  >>
The only sense I can make of such ideas, which also figure in Marcuse and
Adorno, is that social reality contains an intermixing of realised
possibilities, i.e, so-called  "facts", and still-unrealised possibilities.
Both are real, albeit in different modes. Positivism is defective
theoretically and one-sided politically insofar as it reduces all reality to
verifiable facts - at the expense of real possibilities (including those
historical possibility for transcending the ideology of the status quo).
Empirical possibilities include a normative dimension but are different from
pure and universal "oughts" asserted by of moralistic natural law.

Other than that, this concepiton of the not-yet  does appear somewhat too
mystical/messianic for my liking as well.

Michael

   

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