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

["Mervyn Hartwig" <mh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tobin

The Greek root 'deon', on which 'deontology' is partly formed, has the
double meaning I indicated, whether you like it or not.

And it is a fact that DPF is not  'appallingly badly written'. 

Mervyn 

 
-----Original Message-----
From: critical-realism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:critical-realism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tobin
Nellhaus
Sent: 04 December 2007 22:59
To: Continuation of the Spoon Bhaskar List
Subject: Re: [Critical-Realism] Side note on clear writing and Bourdieu

Mervyn--

I expect "eudaimonia" isn't in the OED because (1) RB is adopting a 
different transliteration of the Greek than was customary (as you mentioned,

the existing spellings were eudemon or eudaemon); (2) the already existing 
abstraction was eudemony, so the -ia suffix is a variation which, if more 
people than RB are using it, hasn't been brought to its attention.  (OED 
defines eudemony as "happiness, prosperity," which is pretty close to RB's 
meaning I think.  Again, the most recent usage cited was in the 19th 
century.)

The OED isn't a dictionary of philosophy, so your expectations are 
misplaced.  You may as well expect it to provide the meanings of poems. 
Incidentally, however, if you know how to look you'll find labour power, 
commodity fetishism, alienation (citing Marx) and other goodies.

The interpretation you propose linking deontology and de-ontology is a 
stretch, I think.  It more or less conflates absences in general with needs 
(as involving a specific type of absence) in particular.  At most, the 
former might be considered a subtype of the latter, and even that tends to 
ignore deontology's modern meaning.  In any case it's illicit to take what 
you rightly described in DCR as an interpretation and now present it as 
though it were a fact.  Does RB ever write "deontology" when he means 
"de-ontology"?

I don't think I've "shifted," at least not during the current discussion.

"Libel" isn't applicable, because statements of opinion are not the same as 
statements of fact.  If someone said "Tobin is an ugly, stupid jerk," I 
might be highly insulted but I wouldn't have been libeled.  If someone said 
"Tobin stole $15,000 from his sister," then ceteris paribus, I would have 
been libeled.  Likewise, if someone accused RB of plagiarizing large parts 
of DCR, that would be libel (unless true, which is scarcely imaginable), but

accusing the book of being wacky isn't (even though I consider the notion 
false).  Otherwise, authors would be busily sueing book reviewers at every 
turn, and JCR would have to pay for liability insurance merely to publish! 
Of course, if someone had difficulty distinguishing between opinion and 
fact, as between interpretation and truth, they'd have difficulties with the

distinction between libel and insult.  On the other hand, in the heat of 
argument sometimes statements of opinion sound like statements of fact.

T.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mervyn Hartwig" <mh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Continuation of the Spoon Bhaskar List'" 
<critical-realism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, 04 December 2007 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Critical-Realism] Side note on clear writing and Bourdieu


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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