[Critical-Realism] Critical Realism of the Incorporeal

[Fred Zaman <agent.redstone@xxxxxxxxx>]

  Toward a ?Critical Incorporealism? (CI)
   
  1. Nature?s Incorporealism
   
  1.1 Modern physics, including both quantum and relativity 
  theory, has demonstrated that the philosophical cornerstone 
  of classical physics, in essence the corporeal cosmography 
  (atomism) of Democritus, indeed is mythic. Ultimately, when 
  the reductive analysis of material bodies is taken to its 
  limit, no solid, spatially extended particles or bodies are 
  found to actually exist. All that is left is space and 
  certain constitutive powers that are exercised within a 
  given domain, when then constitute what we call ?matter.? 
  Nonetheless, it is true that the Greek mythos of matter?s 
  Democritean corporeality was in the beginning extremely 
  fruitful as a grounding metaphysics for modern science, and 
  remains even today a common sense interpretive key in 
  classically-grounded natural sciences.
   
   1.2 So the question perhaps should now be asked, given the 
  success of physical theory development initially founded 
  upon what is matter?s mythical cosmography: why it is that 
  social science theorists--critical realist theorists in 
  particular--do not now similarly engage the mythic, in a 
  corresponding effort to naturalistically ground social 
  science theory on the substantively different 
  ?incorporealist? cosmography of nature and society? So that 
  a fertile social science of what it is to be human perhaps 
  could then be developed in naturalist terms. In doing this, 
  science would then possess two complementary cosmological 
  paradigms, which ontologically are fundamentally different 
  yet at the same time empirically consistent: a corporeal 
  cosmography that is conceptually hegemonic in the 
  classically-grounded natural sciences still as a matter of 
  ?common sense,? despite modern physics? demonstration of 
  its ultimate mythic character; and an equally mythic 
  incorporeal cosmography of nature for the social sciences 
  that would powerfully address the deep psychic, existential 
  issues of life in naturalist terms.
   
  1.3 I will not attempt to answer here the historical 
  question of why such an approach has not yet been 
  attempted. The position I take on this issue is that, 
  today, no matter the reason for not doing such in the past, 
  a Naturally Incorporeal Cosmography (NIC) for the social 
  sciences can and should be established. My efforts here are 
  toward a theoretical and practical advancement of social 
  science theory that, grounded on ?incorporealism? as a 
  ?mythic? first principle, is directed toward the 
  establishment of a Naturally Incorporeal Cosmography in 
  which basic issues about human existence are grounded on 
  the evidence and concepts of natural science. NIC in 
  essence is a critical-realist theory of personal, cultural, 
  economic, and political order that employs the 
  instrumentality of natural law as the basis of an 
  incorporeal causation.
   
  1.4 NIC, which here refers to nothing supernatural in 
  character, is currently exemplified in physical theory by 
  an incorporeal (non-particulate) ?dark energy? that 
  pervades the universe, which physically exists but 
  nevertheless possesses no substantive body. This 
  incorporeal ?dark energy? of the universe, comprising some 
  ninety-plus percent of its mass, exists solely as a cosmic, 
  low level energy that materially conforms to physical law 
  but nevertheless possesses no substantive, corporeal body. 
  NIC, thus exemplified cosmologically in the scientifically 
  proposed naturalism of ?dark energy,? is a ?Naturally 
  Incorporeal Cosmography? that complements the conventional, 
  common sense, Democritean ?corporeal cosmography? of 
  classical physics.
   
  1.5 The incorporeal causality engaged here, as a 
  comprehensive naturalist foundation for social science, is 
  the Gnostic Demiurge--the Greek ?creator deity? of the 
  material world. A ?critical-incorporealist? development of 
  this mythos--it will be argued--can assist theoretical 
  developments in the social sciences; which assistance will 
  be exemplified in its application to a ?creator deity? of 
  capital in America. The creator deity thus formulated 
  however, is fundamentally secular in principle and has 
  little to do with the modern perspective of religion in 
  science today including Christian evangelical creationism. 
  Indeed, we are, in the Gnostic worldview of the above 
  incorporeal cosmography, each a mortal ?demigod? (which 
  seemingly from the conservative evangelical viewpoint is 
  anti-Christian), because--as creative agents in nature--we 
  each as a mortal demigod individually accomplish our 
  purposes and goals by applying nature?s laws as personal 
  instruments of control. This of course is heresy in the 
  ?corporeal cosmography? currently accepted by natural 
  science. But then, from the perspective of science truly, 
  the existing corporeal cosmography and the noveau 
  incorporeal cosmography of nature presented here in fact 
  are both metaphysical conventions--one no more and no less 
  than the other. Their ability to fruitfully explain a wide 
  range of natural and/or social phenomena thus should be the 
  only criterion on which their acceptance is based, as a 
  matter of science. However, the fruitfulness in the social 
  sciences of a noveau, mythic, ?Naturally Incorporeal 
  Cosmography? will be shown to be much superior--in the 
  human sciences at least--than that currently accepted by 
  the classically-grounded sciences, but nevertheless equally 
  ?mythic,? corporeal cosmography dubbed ?atomism.?
   
  2. A Critical Incorporealism
  2.1 Newton?s laws of motion, a mathematical account of the 
  corporeal cosmography of classical physics, which as 
  ?fundamental? laws of nature have been refuted by both 
  quantum and relativity theory, in essence constitute a 
  modern mythos as well. Understood within a Jungian 
  framework, they are an archetype of causality in nature 
  that modern humans intuitively feel, share, and experience. 
  The Newtonian archetype, formulated in terms of motion and 
  gravitational attraction, directly affects our modern 
  ?subconscious? and/or ?unconscious? perceptions (self-
  unaware awareness) and ways of understanding. Therefore, 
  because of their mythic, archetypal character, the 
  Newtonian laws of motion and gravitation are necessarily 
  implicated in a Naturally Incorporeal Cosmography for the 
  social sciences. The Newtonian/Jungian archetype of 
  causality in nature, that we moderns feel, share, and 
  experience--at the very least at the level of the 
  subconscious/unconscious--in principle directly extends to 
  a to-be-developed NIC that can facilitate theoretical 
  understanding in the social sciences; in much the same way 
  that the corporeal cosmography of Democritean atomism did 
  for physical theory in the beginnings of modern science.
   
  2.2 According to the NIC thesis, nature?s causality 
  concerns here mythic-inspired ?critical incorporeal powers? 
  (CIP), which operate--in both the biological and social 
  sciences--such that neo-Newtonian principles of ?inertia? 
  (maintain the CIP state of motion), ?acceleration? (change 
  the CIP state of motion), ?action-reaction? (CIP 
  synchronization), along with CIP attraction/repulsion, are 
  instruments of top-down control. In terms of the critical-
  realist logic of ?absenting absence,? nature?s critical 
  incorporeal powers are ?synchronic emergent powers? that 
  are systematic, structural, implicate power relations, and 
  (in society) legitimate motivating ideologies (Dialectic: 
  The Pulse of Freedom, p. 163). An incorporeal cosmography 
  encompassing both nature and society thus is a further 
  theoretical development of Bhaskar?s Synchronic Emergent 
  Powers Materialism, in which mind is an incorporeal 
  substance of nature (The Possibility of Naturalism, p. 98) 
  that controls the body via the instrumentality and 
  synchronicity of natural law.
   
  2.3 According to this thesis, every CIP, whether natural or 
  social, possesses a ?state of motion? whose tendency to 
  persist unchanged is due to the power?s ?inertia?; the 
  motion of which can be analytically described in a 
  ?cosmographic state space.? Each CIP also, in general, over 
  time employs certain ?acceleration forces? available to it, 
  by which it changes or modifies its existing state of 
  motion in response to the environment. Third, the CIP?s of 
  nature and society are synchronized through various forms 
  of incorporeal ?action-reaction? in their merged 
  cosmographic state spaces?the constant ?contentions? of 
  which create the empirically and historically observed 
  synchronizations. Forth, CIP also experience attractions or 
  repulsions in the cosmographic state spaces thereof, the 
  forces of which correspondingly modify their states of 
  motion according to the previous principles of an 
  incorporeal Newtonianism. This formulation of incorporeal 
  natural causation constitutes a Naturally Incorporeal 
  Cosmography (NIC) for the life sciences that applies 
  directly to both biological and social systems. The 
  cosmographic state space of NIC is an analytical space that 
  defines naturalistically, in the terms of incorporeal 
  motive powers governed by the laws of nature, the temporal 
  evolution of critical incorporeal powers (CIP) existing in 
  both nature and society.
   
  2.4 In NIC, nature?s laws whether in their current form, or 
  others yet to come, are instrumentally utilized by critical 
  incorporeal powers ?top down?--rather than ?bottom up? as 
  understood by the current corporeal cosmography of the 
  natural sciences. Nature?s laws are the instruments by 
  which CIP, materially empowered in and through nature as 
  active agents of creation, control their actions causally 
  top-down in response to their environment, naturally 
  without otherworldly assistance. Each human being in NIC is 
  a mortal yet incorporeal power that, as an active agent in 
  nature, employs its laws as reason dictates--whether 
  consciously or unconsciously--in the conduct of life. In 
  every thing that we do, we, in NIC, accomplish what we do 
  naturally, through laws of nature we employ as instruments 
  of top-down control--of which the most prominent 
  instruments are nature?s Newtonian ?laws.?
   
  3. America?s Capitalist Demiurge
  3.1 My essay ?The Bhaskarian Dialectic of Capital: The 
  Pulse of Freedom in America? in essence is an unstated 
  theory employing the ?Demiurge? of Greek mythology that is 
  (1) set within the historical framework of American 
  capitalism, and (2) causally grounded on a critical-
  realist, instrumental interpretation of natural law.  There 
  is in this theory an unconscious foundation of capitalist 
  creativity that closely resembles the Demiurge of Greek 
  mythology, the ?creator deity? of the material world. Thus 
  understood, there are two aspects of capitalism: one 
  positive and the other negative. In the positive, Platonic 
  sense the Demiurge of capitalism is a benevolent creator of 
  material wealth: an artisan, craftsman, worker in the 
  service of humanity. This is the familiar story told by 
  Americans, to themselves and the world, throughout the 
  nation?s history. It can be argued, however, that a 
  secretive, ?reverse? Gnostic side to capitalism also 
  exists, which is diametrically opposed to its ?obverse? 
  Platonic side. The American dollar, which physically 
  possesses both an obverse and reverse side, thus both 
  culturally and politically possesses the same duality.
   
  3.2 In the negative, Gnostic sense of the Demiurge, 
  capitalism can be seen to possess a superordinate 
  collective unconscious or will that has an ?evil? side, 
  evil in the sense that it is secretly indifferent--and 
  generally even antagonistic--to the will of the people 
  concerning the Common Good. Lurking beneath its more 
  visible Platonic aspect, capitalism, in its secretive 
  Gnostic aspect, is malevolent. It is ?possessed? by the 
  overweening desire to create, publicly unseen and without 
  ascent by common folk, something completely apart from the 
  common people; thereby conspiring against the plebian 
  impulse toward realizing the Common Good. In this 
  mythocentric framework, modernity?s capitalist Demiurge is 
  deeply flawed morally and ethically, for it is consciously 
  ignorant of that superior level of reality which was 
  capitalism?s birthright--the collective wisdom of common 
  folk regarding the Common Good.
   
  3.3 In America then, modern capitalism, through the creator 
  deity of an ?American Demiurge,? has essentially entrapped 
  the human spirit within the material forms created by 
  modern science and technology. Paraphrasing the Gnostic 
  writings of the Nag Hammadi Library, the Demiurge 
  (incorporeal creator deity) of American capitalism is 
  ?impious in the ignorance which is in it.? For corporate 
  America (in effect through its actions) has said, ?I am God 
  and there is no other God beside me.? America?s capitalist 
  Demiurge, the collective unconscious thereof, is ignorant 
  of its strength, whose source is the place from which it 
  originated--as a worker in the service of the Common Good.
   
  3.4 The most basic of all, and likely the most contentious 
  of the issues raised by the IACR essay The Bhaskarian 
  Dialectic of Capital? is the implicit thesis that a triad 
  of class-based ?critical incorporeal powers? (CIP) are 
  responsible for reducing the chaos that otherwise would 
  have existed in American society over the past several 
  centuries, from about 1650 onward to the present. And the 
  causal framework through which this reduction of societal 
  chaos has been accomplished is the top-down instrumentality 
  and synchronicity of ?demiurgically? controlled Newtonian 
  laws. CIP, through Newtonian and other of nature?s ?laws? 
  serving as instruments of synchronic control, have 
  fashioned and shaped the material world ?top-down.? 
  Nature?s ?critical incorporeal powers? here, in American 
  society, are demiurgic powers of creation that control the 
  material world through the laws of nature, but do so in 
  ways that are indifferent, even antagonistic, to things 
  regarded as being ?spiritual? (immaterial).
   
  3.5 The above triad of classes are capitalist CIP defined 
  in terms of their governing ?political unconscious?: the 
  egalitarian proletariat (lower classes), elitist 
  bourgeoisie (capitalist upper class), and ?petty? 
  bourgeoisie (America?s ?middle class?). This essay 
  objectively defines, in the ?cosmographic state space? of 
  the essay?s Figure 1, the dialectical/historical 
  synchronization of these creative powers as they have 
  evolved in American history (circa 1650 to the present). 
  America, defined in the terms of a pervasive political 
  unconscious, is here a trivalent CIP structure that, 
  through neo-Newtonian principles of synchronicity, has 
  historically evolved in the cosmographic state space of a 
  quadrivalent political ideology. The nation?s fundamentally 
  secular, materialist (and essentially anti-spiritual) 
  development historically, shown in Figure 1, is thus due to 
  the Gnostic Demiurge of American capitalism.
   
  4. Conclusion
  In agreement with Bhaskar on agency in Chapter 3 of ?The 
  Possibility of Naturalism?: the Naturally Incorporeal 
  Cosmography of American capital ?requires no exemption from 
  scientific laws; and the emergence it attributes to mind is 
  entirely consistent with any adequate scientific ontology? 
  (PON, p. 103). Mind, whose nature is at present unknown, is 
  in NIC an incorporeal substance that?s the bearer of those 
  powers--the paradigm of which is a possibility that lies 
  fully within the realm of critical realist philosophy (PON, 
  p. 98). Is it possible for critical realists to discuss, 
  rationally, the development of a Naturally Incorporeal 
  Cosmography whose adequate scientific ontology indeed 
  requires no exemption from the laws of science; but rather 
  interprets these laws as the instruments by which all 
  powers, of both nature and society including those of an 
  incorporeal mind, control their material existence top-
  down?
   
  Fred
   
  

Fred Zaman <agent.redstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  
A request was made for references to CR discussion of 
generative mechanisms in the social sciences. One such 
generative mechanism that can be looked at is found in 
the 2007 IACR Conference essay ?The Bhaskarian 
Dialectic of Capital: The Pulse of Freedom in 
America,? which is on the internet at:

http:/www.pages.drexel.edu/~dtd28/Paper_Zaman

The generative mechanism of the above essay is a 
psychosocial ?operating system? that historically has 
regulated American culture, economics, and politics 
behind the scenes; which are all entangled together--
as shown in the essay?s figures and tables--in a 
single generative mechanism that future work on this 
subject will more generally call a politicized 
?teleonomic unconscious.? The essay recapped below, 
which has been submitted for presentation to the 
Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago next 
April, pursues the ?critical realist? generating 
mechanism of a politicized teleonomic unconscious that 
has been conspiratorially ?entangled?--in American 
culture, economics, and politics historically--per a 
recently published ?Classical Analogue of [Quantum] 
Entanglement.?

The generative mechanism to be described in future 
work thus is a societal teleonomic unconscious that is 
?reflexive,? which reflexivity is a self-unaware 
awareness that at every moment and in every place 
regulates ?behind the scenes? what is allowed, in the 
consciousness of both individuals and social 
collectives. The generating mechanism of this 
?teleonomic unconscious? is a psychosocial ?operating 
system? that regulates at a very high level of 
organization both social stability and change, the 
ultimate exemplar of which is the ?exceptionalism? of 
American history.


-----------------------------
Machiavellian Capitalism 101: 
America?s Subterranean Politics 


Frederick Zaman 
Neural Engineering Research & Development 
Hill AFB, U.S.A.



Abstract. A theory of elitist conspiracy is here 
developed through the publicly unseen, subterranean 
politics of a capitalist ?political unconscious.? The 
IACR conference paper ?The Bhaskarian Dialectic of 
Capital...? 
(http:/www.pages.drexel.edu/~dtd28/Paper_Zaman) is a 
critical-realist ?explanatory critique? of American 
history in which the nation?s elite are continually 
engaged, conspiratorially behind the scenes, in ?class 
warfare.? This same critique, however, through an 
ongoing egalitarian ?dialectic of emancipation,? also 
provides the means by which the lower classes are 
able, to some degree, promote and defend their 
interests against elitist conspiracies--of which the 
greatest may be America?s ?classless society.? Drawing 
on a complex of social theoreticians, the IACR essay 
theorizes on the capitalist ?ideocracies? created in 
America through the ongoing social, economic and 
political entanglement of an historical quadrumvirate 
of political ideologies. It develops an ontologically 
deep ?critical realist? foundation for a Machiavellian 
capitalism whose agents--both individuals and 
collectives--covertly pursue, largely at the level of 
the nation?s ?political unconscious,? their projects 
publicly unseen. The IACR?s essay?s causality, called 
?Transcendental Naturalism,? is here recast as a 
theory of ?Imperceptible Constitutive Entanglement? 
(ICE). ICE is a ?critical realist? theory/methodology 
in which the metaphysical entanglement of a 
?Machiavellian capitalism?--in American culture, 
economics, and politics; unconsciously over the long 
term--conforms to a published ?Classical Analogue of 
[Quantum] Entanglement.? Neither ?empirically? 
observed in the open society nor publicly admitted, 
the works thereof--accomplished conspiratorially 
behind the scenes--are achieved through a neo-
historical/neo-dialectical materialism in which 
nature?s laws function instrumentally. Becoming 
functionally entangled as higher-level biological, 
social, economic and political processes evolve, these 
laws emerge as instruments of ?top-down? control. ICE 
provides a rational theory of elite, upper-class 
conspirators that covertly govern the nation through 
?secret correlations? and ?secret communications? that 
are always elitist and self serving. ICE also is a 
methodology for raising up into public awareness, by a 
politically-engaged ?academic vanguard,? the 
conspirators of capitalism?s elite upper class 
currently embedded, unawares by the public, in 
America?s political institutions.


------------------------
Another work in progress on the postulated societal 
?teleonomic unconscious,? as a fundamental generative 
mechanism in the social sciences, is the 
psychophysical essay below, submitted to the 2008 
Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference held in 
Tucson, Arizona next April. 

The Phenomenology of Neuronal Binding: 
Operating System of the Teleonomic Unconscious 


Frederick Zaman 
Neural Engineering Research & Development 
Hill AFB, U.S.A.


ABSTRACT. Is mind, to include both its conscious and 
unconscious elements, an artifact of neurophysical 
processes whose causality is bottom up; or is mind 
superordinate in a hierarchical relationship to these 
processes, through a ?phenomenal causality? that is 
top down? Considering the second possibility, 
consciousness may be a composite of the first-person 
?observables? of a reflexive unconscious ?operating 
system? working phenomenologically in the background 
unseen and unacknowledged by neuroscientists; which 
perceptively and adaptively programs the objectives 
and purposes of conscious processes ?top down.? 
Consciousness, grounded in localized brain activity 
controlled behind the scenes by the empirically unseen 
?global variables? of the unconscious ?operating 
system? thus conceived, is then subordinate to and the 
focal point of a ?teleonomic unconscious? whose 
awareness is self unaware. In this view a science of 
consciousness can be grounded on a scientific 
understanding of the brain?s causally top down, 
phenomenologically controlled, unconscious, reflexive, 
teleonomic ?operating system.?

Considered in terms of the brain?s 
neurobiological/electrochemical ?entanglement,? the 
above teleonomic unconscious can be explained in 
concept through a classical brain model empirically 
grounded on the ?secret correlations? and ?secret 
communications? of Collins and Popescue?s ?Classical 
Analogue of [quantum] Entanglement? 
(http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2001/HPL-BRIMS-
2001-17.pdf). The ?first-person observables? of 
consciousness are then controlled by the (empirically 
?secret?) ?hidden variables? of the mind?s teleonomic 
unconscious, which neurophysically are ?entangled? 
according to the above Classical Analogue; resulting 
in the brain?s hierarchical, top-down, 
phenomenological control via empirically hidden 
(secret) correlations and communications. The global 
variables of the operating system of the teleonomic 
unconscious, empirically hidden from external 
observers (neuroscientists), to give a few well-known 
examples, include the primary colors, the basic 
emotions (love, compassion, hate, envy, etc.); which 
phenomenologically control the activation of related 
neuronal subsystems.

Subjective phenomena such as these then enter into 
what we call ?consciousness? as related localized 
neuronal systems are activated, by the teleonomic 
unconscious functioning globally as the brain?s 
operating system. The ?global variables? of this 
neurological operating system, which are empirically 
invisible to the neuroscientist, then comprise the 
inner agent we each recognize as the personal source 
and determinant cause of our thought and behavior. In 
this theory our subjective being in consciousness and 
objective physical realization in brain activity are 
dynamically entangled in a subject-object symbiosis 
that, although classical in character--perhaps 
according to a Collins-Popescue type ?classical 
approximation? to quantum entanglement yet to be 
rigorously formulated, ultimately may be found to 
arise out of quantum processes grounded in 
microcellular activities. The name here given to this 
future to-be-formulated approximation (analogue) is 
the mind?s Imperceptible Constitutive Entanglement 
(ICE) with the brain.

FZ



Fred Zaman wrote: 
To All,

The 2007 IACR Conference essay, ?The Bhaskarian Dialectic 
of Capital: The Pulse of Freedom in America,? gives a 
critical-realist ?explanatory critique? of American history 
in which the elite upper class constantly wages ?class 
warfare? against the under classes, but conspiratorially 
behind the scenes while maintaining ?plausible deniability? 
regarding the same. This same critique, however, through an 
ongoing egalitarian ?dialectic of emancipation,? also 
provides the means by which the lower classes have been 
able, historically, to some degree promote and defend their 
interests against elitist, upper class conspiracies.

Figure 1 of BDC diagrams the four hundred year 
historiography of the lower class? efforts to emancipate 
itself from the power structure through which America?s 
elite have continually waged class warfare now for almost 
four hundred years. The ground of the elitist power 
structure in BDC?s Figure 1, which includes a lower-class 
egalitarian dialectic of emancipation, is a tripartite, 
class-based ?political unconscious? that?s easily 
explainable within the framework of Archer?s concept of 
societal morphogenesis. The ?political unconscious? of 
Figure 1 from Archer?s perspective, circa 1650 to the 
present, is a ?morphogenic unconscious? whose ?emancipatory 
dialectic? historically conforms in principle to the basic 
morphogenetic/static cycle on p. 157 of Margaret Archer?s 
?Realist Social Theory? (RST).

In agreement with RST, at each point of American history in 
Figure 1:
(i) social structure necessarily predates the actions which 
transform it, and
(ii) the social structure thus transformed necessarily 
postdates the actions that transformed it.

Archer?s Figure 6, a diagram of the morphogenetic/static 
cycle, can be applied directly to the tripartite, class-
based morphogenic unconscious of Figure 1 in America?s BDC. 
The top level Structural Conditioning of Figure 6 then 
refers to the structural conditioning of the communal 
sector proletariat at each point in time in Figure 1 by the 
public sector?s ?petty bourgeoisie,? perhaps better labeled 
the petty bourgeois ?gardien? of the elite upper class. The 
intermediate-level Socio-Cultural interaction of this 
figure then refers to the long-term influence of the 
communal sector proletariat on the private sector?s ?elite 
(haute) bourgeoisie.? The bottom-level structural 
elaboration/reproduction of Figure 6 then refers to the 
historically continuing short-term dominance of the private 
sector bourgeoisie over the public sector gardien. These 
three levels of Figure 6 thus describe a class-based 
socioeconomic/political closed loop operating over 
historical epochs of time in American society. As stated by 
Archer in support of Bhaskar, ??temporality [in society] is 
not an option but a necessity, for as he [Bhaskar] states, 
?social structures are to be earthed in space and situated 
in time and space/time is to be seen/scene as a flow.??

For example, referring to (i) and (ii) above, the political 
unconscious circa 2000 of the (libertarian) gardien of the 
public sector in Figure 1 predates the actions now ongoing 
that are going to transform it in the future, from fully 
libertarian c 2000 to fully conservative c 2100; which the 
same political unconscious c 2000 postdates the joint 
actions, on the public sector gardien, of the (libertarian-
turning-conservative) private sector bourgeoisie and 
(conservative-turning-communitarian) communal sector 
proletariat. Similar analyses can be performed at other 
turning points in American history: c 1900, 1800, and 1700 
for example.

In this Archerian analysis of BDC, referring to p. 169 of 
RST:

(i) there are internal and necessary logical (ideo-logical) 
relationships between the American Cultural System (CS) 
composed of Figure 1?s three sectors/classes, as 
exemplified in BDC?s Figure 2 and Table 1.

(ii) causal influences are exerted by the CS (ideo-logical) 
components in Figure 2 and Table 1 due to the Socio-
Cultural (S-C) interactions (dialectic of emancipation) in 
BDC?s Figure 1 and Table 2.

(iii) there are causal relationships between groups and 
individuals at the S-C level, which for the classes of BDC 
are identified in Figure 1 and Table 2.

(iv) there is, in the terms of these figures and tables, 
where the morphogenesis of America?s tripartite class 
unconscious is concerned, an elaboration of the CS due to 
S-C Interaction modifying current ideo-logical 
relationships and introducing new ones. At the same time, 
S-C Interaction reproduces to the extent possible existing 
internal and necessary cultural relations in a ?morphogenic 
unconscious? that?s been evolving throughout American 
(United States) history.

Taken together, the figures and tables of BDC sketch an 
ideoplastic cycle of morphogenic ?Cultural Conditioning?
Cultural Interaction?Cultural Elaboration? that?s been 
continuous throughout American history; where the end 
product (iv) at any point in history then at the same time 
constituted the new (i), and the cycle of cultural change 
continues. This very briefly is how Margaret Archer?s 
morphogenetic approach applies to and cogently explains in 
CR terms America?s BDC. It should be apparent from the 
above that America?s BDC is implicitly a high-level 
exemplar of Margaret Archer?s morphogenetic approach to 
explanatory critique.

Consider now the subject of modernity?s fundamental power 
structures addressed by Mervyn in the post below, of which 
American capitalism certainly must be one. Based on Figure 
1 of BDC it seems that ?CR?s dialectics of emancipation,? 
as it has been manifested in American capitalism, most 
certainly--arguing against Mervyn--has left the nation?s 
most fundamental ?power structure? (its historically 
evolving political economy) structurally intact. Indeed, as 
shown in Figure 1, it has remained essentially intact now 
for close to 400 years; because the lower class? ?dialectic 
of emancipation,? which has been America?s historical 
instrument of cultural, economic, and political change, has 
been fundamental to that which is the nation?s most durable 
power structure?capitalism?s unconsciously Machiavellian 
polity. There obviously have been great changes in American 
culture, economics, and politics since colonial days, but 
the ideological power structure of Figure 1 has remained 
fundamentally intact.

Concerning Mervyn?s post also, the absence of a causally 
effective communitarian philosophy in America?s gardien 
(public sector) c 2000 has caused the emergence and 
dominance of this same philosophy in the proletariat 
(communal sector) today. The same causality of absence 
similarly has been demonstrated c 1900, 1800, and 1700 
respectively for the political philosophies of 
conservatism, libertarianism, and liberalism. More complex 
examples are possible in the intervening years. For 
example, the absence of a dominant communitarian philosophy 
in the communal sector?s gardien prior to 1950 was the 
seedbed for its emergence in and dominance of the same post 
1950. Understanding the causal power of absence at the mid-
century turning points of Figure 1 (1650, 1750, 1850, 1950) 
is fundamental to understanding the causality of the 
century turning points (1700, 1800, 1900, 2000). The 
causality of absence in American history has been 
fundamental to the nation?s cultural, economic, and 
political development.

Also, in conformance with Dave?s posting below on 
unconscious intentions: America?s BDC provides a plausible 
theory of political unconscious intentions that?s grounded 
on high-level ?abstract intentions?; which is to establish 
the hegemony nation-wide of differing political 
philosophies of conservatism, communitarianism, liberalism, 
and libertarianism; as preferred solutions to 
unsatisfactory features of the lifestyle existing at every 
point in American history.

FZ

------------------------------------------
Mervyn Hartwig mh at jaspere7.demon.co.uk 
Thu Oct 4 04:28:21 MDT 2007 


Hi Phil

Good to hear from you. 

Er, discussing etc. Unfortunately people can't march on the 
list, and I don't think you should assume that they don't 
march off-list. I've actually enjoyed the silence but 
people have started 'testing' to see if the list's still 
alive, so I thought it would do no harm to prod it a bit. 
Mainly though I just wanted to share my discovery that a 
major contemporary American novelist clearly believes in 
the causal power of absence (often contested here): 
absenting of clappers ---> absence of tolling ---> stunning 
impact on the lifeworld, but no-one's commented on that.

You want me to say 'working class'? Come on, many of us are 
petit bourgeois intellectuals. How about 'slaves'? But 
then, the alienator must himself be de-alienated, the 
educator educated, so I said 'people'. CR's dialectics of 
emancipation don't however leave the fundamental power 
structures of modernity intact, so it's no regression to 
Tom Paine and populism.

Mervyn 


-----Original Message-----
From: critical-realism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:critical-realism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu] On 
Behalf Of Phil Walden
Sent: 04 October 2007 04:11
To: 'Continuation of the Spoon Bhaskar List'
Subject: Re: [Critical-Realism] This beautiful absence

Can you make your question more specific Mervyn? What is 
it that you think the people should be doing that they 
supposedly aren't? Marching?? (Joke). Reading? (No joke, 
although price of CR books is one). Debating? Etc?

Btw does your use of the term "people" signify a regression 
to Tom Paine style 18th century freethinking politics as if 
the 19th century and Marx had never happened? What exactly 
is wrong with the Marx terminology, according to you?

Phil


[Critical-Realism] conscious and unconscious intentions
Dave Taylor dave at malvernl.freeserve.co.uk 
Tue Oct 16 15:14:01 MDT 2007 
* Previous message: [Critical-Realism] conscious and 
unconscious intentions 
* Next message: [Critical-Realism] intentional agency 
* Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ 
author ] 

Gerard

What if anything is wrong with the belief that Freud is 
projecting his own
theory onto his judgment of others in attributing 
unconscious intentions to
sexual drives? He himself may have had a not always 
conscious intention to
have sex whenever. Most people have a conscious intention 
not to have sex
inappropriately and learn how to inhibit the drive if its 
arousal conflicts
with that intention.

I suggest a much more plausible theory of unconscious 
intentions is that we
have abstract intentions (eg to find solutions to 
unsatisfactory features of
current lifestyle, this implying intention to take ways of 
avoiding them),
these as yet not having achieved substantial forms which 
COULD be
consciously intuited.

Your last point I agree, but self-deluding sophistry making 
a living out of
blinding us with science is not true philosophy, which is 
about how to find
the best, not being persuaded that the worst is the best we 
can achieve. 

Dave 



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