Re: BHA: Re: Bhaskar's politics

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ruth Groff wrote:
>
> ... you might consider continuing your debate with Andrew off-list.   If not,
> I'll certainly live.  But I've done that -- pursued a topic off-list when
> it's something that I'm keenly interested in but others seem to be getting
> tired of.

Im a mere outside observer, and my viewpoint should not count for much,
but I find Sean's posts of great interest -- and I can think of one
argument for the 'relevance' of the thread in respect to a narrow
conception of list purpose:

A double question is implicit and to some extent explicit in the thread:
(1) Is CR a specialized area of academic thought or does it interconnect
significantly with some broader complex of human interest? and (2) If it
does, what is the nature, the scope and limits of that interconnection?

Now for me as an "outside observer" the answer to these questions is to
be found in Jonathan Joseph. "Realistic Organization?" in _Historical
Materialism_ 3, a response to "So the Party's Over?" by Howard Chodos
and Colin Hay in the same issue. Joseph's position is at least partly
summarized in this sentence: "Therefore, as a second-order critique
critical realism can help clarify the Marxist understanding of . . . ."
I take it that some subscribers to this list would more or less agree
with Joseph, others more or less violently disagree. But in either case,
the "Lenin Thread" would seem to be germane to list concerns.

I would develop this further but my right wrist is broken and I don't
think very fluently while hunting and pecking with one finger. One
really cant separate brain & body.

Carrol Cox


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