Dear Andy and everybody-
Andy, thanks for your very useful example of election. You wrote, "A whole
politics of "getting the numbers" then flows from this which is not only
based on a conception of human society as little coloured dots in a Venn
Diagram, but actually creates such a type of society. . In other words, we
live in a society which is actually structured as a formal logical
conception."
I wonder what you mean by "creates such a type of society." Do you mean that
through the election practice people start thinking formally? Do you mean
that this practice makes people believe that they think formally while
actually they do not (i.e., creates a certain false ideology)? Or do you
mean that this practice makes people prioritize formal logic as the logic? I
agree with you that something related to formal logic "hooks on" the
existing practice of the Western election process guided by the formal logic
(as if the formal logic is correct). The question for me is what exactly is
this "something"?
Eugene
_____
From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 5:22 AM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: timescale question
- and then concludes that the truth in the hands of these methods of formal
logic can capture the truth only for moments. In this way, Hegel points to
the larger task of applying much more than just formal logic to
understanding the truth.
Am I heading in the right direction?
Yes. The problem with formal logic is that it only works with very barren,
abstract notions or categories. For example, if I say "Communists are
against democracy" we can see the truth of the proposition lies mostly in
the barrenness of the conceptions of "communist" and "democracy" rather than
in dodgey deductive logic implicit in this observation.
But always remember that Hegel is not just talking about "logic", he is
talking about the logic of human social relations. So for example, the
western method of electing politicians from large geographical electorates
is an exemplification of formal logic based on abstract general conceptions.
Ask the question "Who do you want in government, this one or that one?" and
throw the this votes and the that votes into two different boxes and count
them. A whole politics of "getting the numbers" then flows from this which
is not only based on a conception of human society as little coloured dots
in a Venn Diagram, but actually creates such a type of society. Likewise
broadcasting delivers one of a series of fixed messages into the various
"audiences" who are made up of people who "choose" whether to watch channel
one or channel two etc. In other words, we live in a society which is
actually structured as a formal logical conception. The critique of formal
logic contains in the Subjective Logic in the Doctrine of the Notion is a
critique of this way of organising life, at the level of abstract concepts.
Andy
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