Date: Thu, 04 Apr 1996 10:00:24 -0600
Subject:  theories, piece-meal approach to science


I think it must not be clear to Adam what I mean by "piecemeal".  It
has nothing to do with overlooking "interrelationships" or "being a
pre-existing mental framework".

I think I'm talking about something like "normal science" in a way. 
There is progress in understanding to be made by trying to get inside
a specific bit of a problem and really elucidate the nature of the
connections between, say, foraging return rates, the distribution of
various food resources across the landscape and maternal strategies
in feeding children.  

[BTW, none of them pick berries for the "good of the tribe", they eat
as they go and what gets carried back to camp is shared predominantly
with close maternal relatives.  Each woman behaves in a way that
maximizes the "team" harvest, referring to herself and _her_
offspring - Hadza people of Tanzania.]

This is a way of approaching forces and relations of production,
isn't it?  This kind of work addresses one little piece of the social
totality puzzle at a time, hence piece-meal approach.

This I contrast with general statements that don't really explain
details at all.

Also, I advocate caution with the architectural analogy.  It's only
one of the analogies that Marx used, and I think it might get reified
sometimes.  I've been told that another one he used was colored
lenses - the forces and relations of production colored the rest of
the whole.  [I don't know the reference on that, anybody else?]  The
interactions are all more complex than any analogy can fully capture.
 
Lisa

>>> Adam Rose <adam-AT-pmel.com>  4/4/96, 02:24am >>>

Lisa writes :
> I think there is a place for piecemeal and proud.

Yes, I think there is. I think this is the only way to proceed in
order to advance knowledge. 
[snip]
When it comes to human society, Marx provides this "simple" key. The
basic motor of human society are the forces of production. At times,
these are helped along by the relations of production, at other times
hindered.  Superstructure depends on this base.
[snip]
I think that "piecemeal and proud" , if it is elevated to the status 
of a pre existing mental framework in order to disallow "framework 
theories" , is basically another way of saying "post modernism" , ie
an intellectualised way of retreating from both science and social
change.




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