Re: BHA: Santa, God, kneeling

[Matt Davies <jmdavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been lurking on the sidelines for this interesting discussion
because I am really out of my depth here, but at the same time for a lot
of the work I am trying to do with historical materialism, the issue of
the ontological status of ideas is pretty central. Hence my interest in
realism. Thanks to all of you for trying to work through this, and for
the bibliographical references. (N.B., what is "PON"?)

Apologies, then, for a simple minded question:

Louis Irwin wrote:
>
[...]
>
>   Sally is real, historical, existing, present;
>   Pierre is real, historical, existing, absent;
>   Socrates is real, historical, non-existent, absent;
>   Santa is real, non-historical, non-existent, absent.
>
What is not real, or unreal? Is the category (unreality) meaninful for
realism? Is phlogiston real is some sense?

(By the way, I can't make sense of the notion that Santa is
non-historical. There is a terrific book in the "invention of
traditions" area by Stephen Nissenbaum called "The Battle for Christmas"
that at least on its face historicizes the whole tradition.)

Gotta run, television's calling me...

Matt


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