Re: [Critical-Realism] Side note on clear writing and Bourdieu

[Howard Engelskirchen <howarde@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

What is the causal efficacy of phlogiston?

Not what someone thought or thinks about phlogiston, but of the de-ont?

The point generalizes.  An absence, absence of 
being, means an absence of causal structure and hence of causal efficacy.

This is a point I have raised from time to 
time.  I find I cannot get my brain around alternatives.

There is undoubted value in speaking informally 
about what absences cause.  And plainly we act 
causally by absenting absences.  There is 
enormous value in thinking dialectically.

But causal structure is a feature of being.

What a drought causes is a result of the causal 
structures in place, not of absent non-structures that aren't there.

That the existence of being presupposes non-being 
is a separate question.  Cause itself is an 
expression of the existence of being in a context 
of the absence of being.  But non-being doesn't 
cause the dependence of being on non-being.

How can a de-ont exist or an absence be 
present?  We cannot confuse the way we talk with 
the way the world is.  When we speak of the 
presence of an absence, there is actually no 
causal structure to which we refer.

howard



At 08:54 AM 12/4/2007, you wrote:
>Hi Louis
>
>
>
>Here are the relevant paras:
>
>
>
>ont/de-ont (Gr. ont-, being + de-, but [with opposing force]). Onts are
>positive, de-onts or absences negative, existences or presences within the
>class of ontics (objects of specific epistemic enquiries) within ontology
>(see epistemology etc.); or, onts are beings, de-onts non-beings. We thus
>have the theorems ontology > ontics > onts, and ontology > ontics > de-onts.
>Ontics is a more inclusive class than onts or de-onts because it embraces
>both. De-onts include never anywhere existences (phlogiston), the simply
>absent (the dead), negative presences (memory, the past and outside), gulfs,
>splits and voids.
>
>
>
>[snip]
>
>
>
>The term de-ont can be interpreted as calling attention to the double
>meaning (equivocity) of the Greek words dein (vb.) and deon (n.) on which
>deontology (the study of moral duty) is formed: (1) to bind, fasten, fetter;
>and (2) to want, lack, need. These two meanings come together in the pivotal
>  cr concept of absence (de-ont) as constraint (fetter) and as lack or
>ill-being (need), thereby unifying ethics with the theory of being. Hence
>Bhaskar sometimes writes de-ontology (P: 113).
>
>
>
>***
>
>
>
>There is a paperback, which sells for £22 here, presumably about $50 US.
>
>
>
>I too think the OED is great (I go to bed with it under my pillow), but not
>so great re some philosophical concepts, e.g. eudaimonia, which Tobin tells
>us is not even in its mega version (in that form), even though it?s a common
>philosophical term. Also it?s somewhat establishment in its perspectives ­
>can be a bit like relying on the BBC World Service to find out what?s going
>on in Venezuela. You won?t find many of Marx?s concepts in it, e.g. ­ at any
>rate in the shorter version I?ve got.
>
>
>
>
>
>Mervyn
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: critical-realism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:critical-realism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Louis
>Irwin
>Sent: 04 December 2007 01:44
>To: 'Continuation of the Spoon Bhaskar List'
>Subject: Re: [Critical-Realism] Side note on clear writing and Bourdieu
>
>
>
>Mervyn,
>
>
>
>I just checked once again with Amazon U.S., which currently sells the
>
>Dictionary for $145 (!!), so don't assume those of us on this side of the
>
>Atlantic have ready access to the dictionary.  Could you provide the entry,
>
>please?  I'm curious to see how the etymology of "deontology", which derives
>
>from the Greek "deon", meaning duty, links up with the etymologoy of
>
>"ontology", which derives from the Greek "onto", meaning being.  (I'm afraid
>
>I too am an admirer of the OED, whose merits Tobin so nicely laid out.)
>
>
>
>Louis
>
>
>
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