Subject: Re: Dialectics & Materialism 
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 1994 15:42:12 -0700
From: Michael Lichter <lichter-AT-nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu>


     Dr. Chris M. Sciabarra says:
          However, my own view of dialectics is that it is a
     METHOD, not a `logic' per se.  [...]
     
          In any approach to the social sciences, there is always
     a certain reciprocity between the method and the content -
     the "how" and the "what" - of one's analysis.  HOW a theorist
     conceptualizes social reality very much affects WHAT factors
     the theorist sees at work.  WHAT a theorist observes in
     social reality simultaneously affects HOW the theorist thinks
     about it.  Dialectics, I believe, refers exclusively to the
     HOW, while Dialectical Materialism extends into the realm of
     the WHAT.  [...]

My naive understanding of method is as a HOW TO.  A conceptual
framework is not a HOW TO, it's a more of a WHAT ("in what way do we
conceptualize social reality?").  The framework tells you what kinds of
questions to ask, but it doesn't tell you how to find or verify
(yikes!) your answers.  It doesn't tell you the pragmatic HOW TO.

Is there really a dialectical materialist method?  If I want to
understand the ongoing slaughter in Rwanda, what does the method tell
me I should do?  What kinds of evidence do I need to gather, and what
do I do with it once I've got it?

Michael


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