From: Ian Wright (ian_paul_wright@HOTMAIL.COM)
Date: Fri Nov 14 2003 - 13:10:14 EST
Hello Ajit, >If you are referring to Sraffa's book, then, of >course, Sraffa is not developing any causal theory >there. In its typical form it's a constraint-based theory, in the sense that it defines a set of logically possible configurations of an economy given the assumption of reproduction and information regarding technical constraints between commodity types. I agree it is not a causal theory. The fact that mathematically it is expressed as solutions to a set of simultaneous equations (i.e, constraints on possible values of variables) is a sign of that. But this isn't a good thing. It's a limitation. Although this is not to deny that an initial abstraction from change can be illuminating. So I think there's no need to justify a constraint-based theory by implying that philosophy tells us we can't hope to do any better. We can and should build dynamic, causal theories of the economy. (As an aside, mathematical logic does admit of causality, as computer science has shown, although I admit this is an obscure point for those not trained in computer science). >Hume's challenge on causation has never been answered. There's been lots of answers to Hume, not least Kant and Hegel. A modern approach is Bhaskar's critical realism, in particular "A Realist Theory of Science". Related to Andrew's point: he holds that critical realism doesn't fully answer Hume either, and that to fully answer him requires a more forceful identity between thought and reality. But really it is very silly to deny the reality of causal change independent of our knowledge of it. And Wittgenstein was regularly quite silly in his reduction of ontology to epistemology, his empiricism of language, and belief that philosophy was essentially about analysing implicit common-sense theories. Here I agree with Popper that philosophy (and reality) is much more than that. -Ian. _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
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