I wrote:
> > I'm not sure what that has to do with literary criticism (which is
> basically supposed to help us understand the fiction we read).<
Tom Walker writes:
>I wish I could remember who it was who referred to Marx as an heir to the
>intellectual tradition of Swabian Pietism.
wasn't it Engels who was the Pietist?
>Critical theory refers not to literary criticism but to one of the major
>traditions of non-Soviet marxism.
I didn't know we were discussing Critical Theory. Hermeneutics and
deconstruction are only slightly related to Critical Theory.
>One need not agree with everything that, e.g., Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse
>or Habermas say to find it intellectually and
>politically irresponsible when they are summarily dismissed as "lit crit
>sh*t".
I wasn't talking about Adorno, _et al_.
>Hermeneutics does refer to the interpretation of biblical texts but by
>extension also refers to textual interpretation in general.
the dictionary used the Bible as only an example.
>Much of the methodology developed for the interpretation of biblical texts
>carried over into German Idealism and subsequently to Marx, by way of
>critique. I think the reference to Marx as a Swabian Pietist referred to
>the similar conjunction of hermeneutics (dialectics) and worldly concern
>(materialism).
I wouldn't say that Marx's critique of Hegel or of the "holy family" was a
matter of hermeneutics. It's more a matter of a critique of their idealism,
of their one-sidedness (dialectical incompleteness), etc. Hermeneutics
involves much more of "what did the author _really_ say or _really_ mean to
say?" whereas Marx usually looked at what the authors said explicitly and
then criticized its meaning and implications.
Where do you get the implicit equation of analysis/criticism of texts
(hermeneutics) with dialectics?
> > BTW, I think it's quite possible that the disagreement between myself
> and Tom Walker arises because he attaches different meaning to the
> PC (and the NAIRU) than I do.<
>
>Yes. See above comment about "understanding the fiction".
what does that say about the meaning you attach to the PC?
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine
