Jan,
Most of the readings on xmca presume certain knowledge and the discussions
always have participants with more or less to contribute but that was one of
the reasons I thought it might be worthwhile reading it since people who
have worked with the material, e.g., Andy and you, on the list. I myself
first learned of the essay in Bakhurst's book and that's my motivation for
working with the original.
One of the reasons it would be of value to explore "the concept of the
ideal" seems to me to be the contrast "the ideal" as used in contemporary
dialectical materialism with "information" as it occurs in
cybernetic/systems theory inspired social theories. Perhaps you would agree
with me that it is quite difficult to state the difference simply but that
it is nevertheless a central issue for comparing the two approaches and
understanding their differences. As such it's significant for avoiding what
Leont'ev called: "the formula of vulgar eclecticism: 'both one and the
other'".
In general it seems the Ilyenkov essay would provide a suitable theoretical
platform for examining a number of issues that arise here repeatedly.
As to the form of reading it, perhaps we could arrange for different
volunteers to prepare paragraph-by-paragraph precis of the essay itself and
post them to initiate the process. I know that's the way I was initially
taught to read philosophy and we've already seen this here with the
discussion of Yeat's "Among School Children" admittedly a difficult poem,
the discussion of which was quite enriching and conflict free although it
involved participants who often see themselves cast as antagonists.
Paul H. Dillon
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