[Xmca-l] Re: Fate, Luck and Chance

[Larry Purss]

Greg, with you I would like to read Martin's paper. The theme of
constitution and cause but also the theme of constitution and construction.
The rudimentary forms through constitutive means being "higher"

Also seems related to the the reflections on "immediate and mediate. Will
listen in to the next installment of "our" thought

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 7:25 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Martin,
> $20K question:
> Is consciousness (or whatever term you would prefer - btw, what term would
> you prefer?) "internally constituted" or "externally constituted"?
>
> Also, would you be willing to share the paper of which you speak? Or at
> least the citation?
> -greg
>
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 6:55 PM, Martin John Packer <
> mpacker@uniandes.edu.co
> > wrote:
>
> > On Nov 19, 2014, at 4:56 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > "objective"
> > > just means that something is seen as not subject to change by a
> > > discourse community, even where that discourse community consists of
> > > just me and my lonely self.
> >
> > Perhaps, David. But with time and effort and study we can come to view
> > that something differently, no?
> >
> > There's a small but growing literature on "constitution" - the way that a
> > water molecule is constituted of, not caused by, hydrogen and oxygen. And
> > the article I was reading today was making an interesting distinction
> > between 'internal constitution,' as in the case of water, and 'external
> > constitution,' as in the case of money. What makes a coin a token of
> > monetary value is *external* to it: the social institutions of banking
> and
> > the practices of buying and selling. These don't cause it, they
> constitute
> > it. The coin, taken at face value, is objective. But once we study it as
> it
> > circulates through these practice and institutions, we come to see that
> its
> > objectivity does not mean it cannot change. On the contrary.
> >
> > Although LSV like to talk about the constituents of a meaningful word as
> > 'internal' to that word, it seems more accurate to see them as external
> in
> > the same sense as the constituents of a coin or a bill are necessarily
> > external to it.
> >
> > Martin
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>