Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 07:43:12 -0600
From: Hans Ehrbar <ehrbar-AT-marx.econ.utah.edu>
Subject: reduction, was economic field theory



Hans Ehrbar:

Societies are not reducible to individuals.  The claim that this can
or should be done is pro-capitalist ideology.

Lisa:

Your last line bothers me, because if people make up their minds that
any *reduction* is inherently pro-capitalist, then how can they
assess anything fairly?

This is a sore spot with me, because I've seen a lot of things
unreasonably dismissed by the leftish as soon as they see any hint of
*individuals* or a variety of other devil words.  It goes so far as
to claim that any reference to individuals, costs or benefits, etc,
for _any_ species or in evolutionary biology is all inherently
pro-capitalist, which I disagree with entirely.  

Hans (and this is new):

Lisa, you are building up a straw man here.

(1) I did not say that *any* reduction is pro-capitalist ideology.

(2) Whereas societies are not reducible to individuals, reduction in
the other direction is not possible either: individuals are not
reducible to society.  I emphasized that modern ideolology trains us
to ignore the irreducible social realities and to "blame" everything
on the individual.  This does not mean that I think individuals should
be ignored, or that individual characteristics are less enduring than
social structures.  (Mao said that it takes seven generations to
build socialism.)

(3) As produts of this society we all are permeated by racism, sexism,
methodological individualism, etc.  We carry them and transmit them
like diseases.  No need to feel guilty about this.  On this list we
are trying to develop some standards of hygiene which will make it
harder for these diseases to take over.



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