BHA: what's next

[Mervyn Hartwig <mh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Ruth wrote:
>what in the bejeezis are we going to do about breathing
>some life back into our extremely quiet list?!  A good healthy discussion
>about whether one can be a critical realist but not be a materialist?  A
>return to RTS?  Or DPF?  Something else?  PON?  Any ideas?  Any takers?

I suggest a reading and discussion of:

Margaret S. Archer, Being Human: the Problem of Agency. Cambridge
University Press, 2000. 323pp paperback 0 521 79564 8

The third in a trilogy, this deals with the agential basis of her social
theory. It is a big book in more than one sense, one that any (D)CR
person will need to read no matter what their particular focus. This is
what the blurb says:

'Humanity and the very notion of the human subject are under threat from
postmodernist thinking which has declared not only the 'Death of God'
but also the 'Death of Man'. This book is a revindication of the concept
of humanity, rejecting contemporary social theory that seeks to diminish
human properties and powers. Archer argues that being human depends on
an interaction with the real world in which practice takes primacy over
language in the emergence of human self-consciousness, thought,
emotionality and personal identity  - all of which are prior to, and
more basic than, our acquisition of a social identity.'

*Being Human* strikes some mighty blows against subjective (linguistic)
idealism and social constructionism and would provide a platform for
discussing just about anything within the (D)CR canon. Notwithstanding
its appropriation of some marxist concepts (including 'the primacy of
practice') I think the book is ultimately profoundly liberal in its
worldview and helps to provide a window on the soul of the later
Bhaskar.

Our DPF reading clearly got somewhat bogged down. I think we should put
it aside for a time - for dipping into now that we've digested a goodly
chunk of it, rather than wading through - and focus on material that
listers find more digestible. All the issues raised by the Bhaskarian
canon could still be brought up. Though I think operating predominantly
within the analytical problematic, Archer is beginning to nibble at
dialectics...

Unfortunately, I don't know the price of the book but it shouldn't be
too much, being a paperback. We'd have to wait a bit for people to get
copies... If listers wanted a more detailed idea of contents before
deciding, I could provide that.

Mervyn



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