Charles Brown wrote:
CB: If I understand here, "internal relations" are anti-Robinsonade
logic
,so to speak ?
Relations are internal where the essence of the individual is the
outcome of its relations. "Robinsonades" are those who implicitly
treat the essence of the individual as independent of its relations.
In reference to classical political economy, it means the, according to
Marx, mistaken treatment of a kind of individuality that in fact is the
outcome of particular internal relations including particular internal
historical relations as independent of these relations, as a fixed
"human nature."
According to Marx what internal social relations determine is the
degree to which there is "development of a totality of capacities in
the individuals themselves," i.e. the degree to which individuals have
become "universally developed individuals" and hence the degree to
which they are "in a position to achieve a complete and no longer
restricted self-activity."
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/
ch01d.htm>
"A complete and no longer restricted self-activity" is the "praxis" of
creating and appropriating beauty and truth within relations of mutual
recognition that defines the "true realm of freedom." This idea
embodies, by the way, the idea of an objective and knowable "good"
which when known is the basis of what Hegel calls the "universal will,"
i.e. the fully rational will of the "universally developed individual"
and hence of the fully rational "interest" of such an individual in
creating and living in a "true realm of freedom." It embodies, in
other words, ontological ideas inconsistent with Ollman's claims, in
the article Louis posted yesterday, about Marx's view of the idea of an
"ideal social republic."
Here is another elaboration of the idea of social relations as internal
relations from the German Ideology.
"Individuals have always and in all circumstances 'proceeded from
themselves', but since they were not unique in the sense of not needing
any connections with one another, and since their needs, consequently
their nature, and the method of satisfying their needs, connected them
with one another (relations between the sexes, exchange, division of
labour), they had toenter into relations with one another. Moreover,
since they entered into intercourse with one another not as pure egos,
but as individuals at a definite stage of development of their
productive forces and requirements, and since this intercourse, in its
turn, determined production and needs, it was, therefore, precisely the
personal, individual behaviour of individuals, their behaviour to one
another as individuals, that created the existing relations and daily
reproduces them anew. They entered into intercourse with one another as
what they were, they proceeded 'from themselves', as they were,
irrespective of their 'outlook on life'. This “outlook on life” — even
the warped one of the philosophers — could, of course, only be
determined by their actual life. Hence it certainly follows that the
development of an individual is determined by the development of all
the others with whom he is directly or indirectly associated, and that
the different generations of individuals entering into relation with
one another are connected with one another, that the physical existence
of the later generations is determined by that of their predecessors,
and that these later generations inherit the productive forces and
forms of intercourse accumulated by their predecessors, their own
mutual relations being determined thereby. In short, it is clear that
development takes place and that the history of a single individual
cannot possibly be separated from the history of preceding or
contemporary individuals, but is determined by this history."
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/
ch03o.htm>
Whitehead calls the ontological idea of "internal relations" a
"genetic" conception of order and contrasts it with the "mathematical"
conception of order that dominates modern thought. It's the basis of
his conception of "law" including natural laws as "immanent."
“The point of a ‘society,’ as the term is here used, is that it is
self-sustaining; in other words, that it is its own reason. Thus a
society is more than a set of entities to which the same class-name
applies: that is to say, it involves more that a merely
mathematical conception of ‘order.’ To constitute a society, the
class-name has got to apply to each member, by reason of genetic
derivation from other members of that same society. The members of the
society are alike because, by reason of their common character, they
impose on other members of the society the conditions which lead to
that likeness.” (A.N.Whitehead, Process and Reality, [Corrected ed.],
p. 89)
"Human logic" means the method - in Whitehead's case "direct intuitive
observation" - by means of which ontological claims such as the claim
that relations are internal are grounded. This larger "logic" limits
and grounds the applicability of formal logic for the reasons given by
Whitehead. It also grounds "dialectical logic" where this refers to
the kind of reasoning appropriate where relations are internal. Such
reasoning has to take account, for instance, of the fact that where
relations are internal changes in relations will change the nature of
the individuals being reasoned about. This is a limitation such
relations place on deductive reasoning from fixed axioms.
Ted
- Re: [PEN-L] Internal Relations [was tobin's q & oil} Ted Winslow
-
