>>> Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 05/16/00 06:45PM >>>
Jim Devine wrote:
>I don't know anything about Butler, so I can't comment on her views.
>If she's indeed one of the "language is the only reality" types,
>then forget her. Doug, aren't all of the statistics you wield so
>well in LBO "discursively constructed"? Does that mean that they
>should be flushed down the toilet?
Why do people think that calling something "discursively constructed"
means it's trivial? GDP is a discursive construction - it has no
existence apart from the system of monetary representation that it
emerged from. It doesn't feed people or make them happy, but
important folks pay lots of attention to it and it guides their
actions.
)))))))))))))))))))
CB: Wasn't GDP socio-politically constructed in order to hoodwink the people ?
Even if you don't take the whole Butler dose, I think it's always
important to ask what is happening ideologically when biology - or
"nature" - is invoked.
__________
CB: Ideologically what is happening is an aspect of a materialist analysis. The
distinction between materialism and idealism is important in ideology>
________
When people start talking about hormones,
there's some invocation of physical necessity against whose judgment
there's no appeal.
_____________
CB: This should be "when some people start talking about hormones". Talking about
hormones does not at all necessarily imply invocation of physical necessity against
whose judgment there is no appeal. It can be discussion of a tendency which exists
amidst other tendencies and influences, including cultural influences. Attributing
absolute biologism to ANY reference to biology is not too difficult to see around.
People are cultural and natural beings, both. Distain of our biology is as foolish as
disdain of our culture. We have not transcended our biological natures utterly. So,
discussion of hormones, and the biology of hormones is sensible, though it doesn't
mean culture cannot also be discussed. It doesn't at all mean we must discuss hormones
as if they are a physical necessity against whose judgment there is no appeal, rather
as an factor intertwined with cultural factors.
___________
Or in the dismal science, "natural" rates of
interest or unemployment. As Keynes said of the "natural" rate of
interest, it's the one that is most likely to preserve the status
quo; I think you'll find the same when "natural" differences between
the sexes (not genders) are invoked.
_______
CB: Isn't it clear that biology impinges more directly on sex than on the rate of
unemployment or interest ? Does the difference really have to be explained ? Do you
really think there are no natural differences between the sexes ? Do you really think
there is no natural such that you write "natural" in quotes ?
CB
