> > What is the whole? How could we possibly test/verify/falsify Hegel's
> > assertion [that the truth -- or the true -- is the whole]? ....
I liked Carrol's answer, but I have my own. Hegel's assertion is more a way
of testing/verifying/falsifying theories than it is an assertion of truth.
If someone proposes a theory, there are at least three major ways of
criticizing it (in terms of truth or falsity):
(1) is it internally consistent, logically speaking, following classic
Aristotelian logic?
(2) does it fit the known facts, so that it's consistent with perceived
empirical reality? and
(3) is it complete, or does it leave important things out?
The last is what people refer to when they quote Hegel.
For example, consider neoclassical economics. That economics often passes
test #1 (since that's their emphasis) and sometimes passes test #2, but
usually fails test #3. The emphasis of NC economics is on how individuals
choose, creating the social world, given various natural constraints. But
they ignore the way in which the social world shapes individual
preferences, so that the world creates the individuals. They typically
ignore the relations among individuals except for purely market relations,
while considering only small pieces of the whole (the totality of social
relations). They also ignore historical time (the dynamic and
disequilibrium interaction between the individuals and the whole) and focus
on merely logical time. Etc.
Thus, we see pen-l's resident neoclassical superstar putting forth the
proposition that the leaders of those countries that get IMF loans really
want them, so that all else constant it's better to have the IMF there to
make the loans. This is "true" (as far as I can tell), since it makes
logical sense (those who go to loan-sharks really need the loans) and fits
with empirical data that I've seen. However, it is "untrue" in the sense
that it leaves a lot of stuff out, specifically the fact that the IMF is a
crucial part of the imperialist system of power that creates the situations
that make the leaders want the loans in the first place. It also leaves out
the way in which the IMF exploits the leaders' desperation in order to
impose its one-size-fits-all neoliberal "solution."
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
