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
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005