Re: [OPE-L] Anita's Chocolate Cake

From: Stephen Cullenberg (stephen.cullenberg@UCR.EDU)
Date: Tue Nov 08 2005 - 20:55:23 EST 



Gerry,


Thanks for your reply and nice example of Anita's Chocolate Cake. 
By emphasizing Anita's labor in the production of the cake, I think
you've extended my example.  Some might say that your extension is
evidence of layers, or levels, of causality, but I would resist
that.  You've added to the complexity of the event (the cake) that I
first specified, but that does not to my mind mean that you have added
another level (more primary? you didn't say that exactly, but many would)
of causality.  You've asked a lot of hypothetical questions and
shown a certain a priori bias, some of which seem so obvious that to deny
them would seem ridiculous (an in grown toenail vs. heart disease). 
But to really explain the (differential) effect of each of the examples
or conditions of existence that you mention would require an empirical
analysis, one which could lead to potential surprise, and recognize the
importance of variation or difference.  I would suggest that our
insistence on one or another condition of existence as "more
important" than another is a political or aesthetic choice and not
an ontological one.  Ontology cannot tell what aspect(s) of reality
or social life we want to change, only we can do that.


Let me ask you a question in return.  Granted Anita's labor is one
of the constitutive elements in the making of the cake, but so too is
flour.  If I told you that the flour used in Anita's cake was bought
from a large national wholesaler, etc., etc., would that extension of the
conditions of existence of the cake be any more or less important than
the extension you much more vividly detailed?  Perhaps more
important for the politics of labor or exploitation, but any more
important for the constitution of the cake? 


Interstingly, my example of the cake can also be found in Lewontin, Rose
and Kamin's Not in Our Genes, and I think is consistent with the
overall approach of Lewontin and Levins in their Dialectical Biologist
(by no means am I trying to imply that they are postmodernists, but I
do think their approach is close to what I think).


There is a nice review in the May 2005 MR of Dialectical
Biologist:   Dialectical Nature: Reflections in Honor of the
Twentieth Anniversary of Levins and Lewontin’s The Dialectical
Biologist by Brett Clark and Richard York.  If I could just
quote from part of the review, I think Clark and York capture well what I
have called constitutive causality and provided a hint of the scientific
approach of experimentation or cause and effect that Ian has
supported.


"A dialectical stance is essential in order to understand the
material world in terms of its own becoming: recognizing that history is
open, contingent, and contradictory. In a time when ruling-class ideology
permeates every pore of the social world and genetic explanations reign
as justifications for social differences and inequalities, the work of
Lewontin, Levins, and Gould liberates scientific research and social
knowledge from the social constructs of “bad science.” 

.....


In The Dialectical Biologist, Levins and Lewontin reject one-sided
notions of mechanical reductionism and superorganic holism (common in
ecology) and the hierarchical conceptions of life and the universe that
they both generate. In presenting their approach, they critique both
idealism and reductionism within the natural sciences. Instead Levins and
Lewontin argue for a dialectical and materialist approach that
understands that the world “is constantly in motion. Constants become
variables, causes become effects, and systems develop, destroying the
conditions that gave rise to them” (279). The universe is one of change
due to existing and evolving contradictions, which force transformation
in the conditions of the world. “Things change because of the actions of
opposing forces on them, and things are the way they are because of the
temporary balance of opposing forces” (280). "


Perhaps we could talk about what is right or wrong with Lewontin and
Levins rather than the more loaded term postmodernism, because for me
they come very close to how I think.


BTW, I fully understand Paul Z.'s concern and am happy for the list to
move on to more pressing topics. 


Steve












OK, let's consider this example
more.  To begin with, the "ingredients" for the cake

not only include those you mentioned.  Making a cake is a productive
and re-

productive activity.  One therefore has to include labor activity as
an ingredient. 

To do that, one must recognize that the baker, as the creator of the
cake,  is also

constitutive of the cake.  To the extent that the cake is a product
created by

an individual baker, then all matters which are constitutive of the
individual baker

are also constitutive of the cake.

 

With this as background, let us see whether it is or is not possible to
rank 

an individual factor in the creation of the cake as more or less causally
important 

and having a greater or lesser explanatory power as all other
factors.

 

                                        
********************

 

Suppose the chocolate cake is being made by Anita De Los Santos, a chef


in Caracas who grew up in a wealthy family in  San Juan, Puerto
Rico,  and 

was trained at a famous culinary school in Paris.  Her specialty is
pastries.

 

Do you want more detail?  OK.  Anita has been a feminist since
she was in 

her teens.  When she first became a socialist in 1975,  her
role models were

Lolita Lebron and Rosa Luxemburg.  She has three children (2 girls
and 1 boy,

ages 4, 7, 9),  is divorced, and is 48-years-old.   She
moved to Caracas 2 years 

ago in order to support the Bolivarian Revolution.  Although a 
socialist and a

feminist, she is also a devout Catholic and supporter of Liberation
Theology.

She attends church every Sunday.  The cake that she made is for a
birthday 

party for her 7-year-old,  Mariarosa. 

 

Anita, being a middle-aged person, has various health problems,
including

an in-grown toenail, dandruff, and heart disease (she had a mini-stroke a


year ago). 

 

I could provide more detail if you wish.

 

As planned, Anita returns from work in the evening and bakes the 

chocolate cake for Mariarosa.   The date:  Wednesday,
November 5,

2005.

 

                                  
********************

 

Now, is it or is it not possible that some of the above factors are more
or

less causally important in the constitution of the cake?

 

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that the fact that Anita has
an

in-grown toenail is probably of  little importance in the baking of
the

cake?  Do you agree?

 

I'll also go out on a limb and add that for the constitution of
Anita

herself,  the fact that she has heart disease and had a stroke
is

more important (and has greater explanatory power in considering 
her

overall health condition) than the fact that she has dandruff and an
in-

grown toenail.  Do you agree?

 

I'll further stick my neck out and claim that the proportion in
which

she added sugar, flour, milk, eggs, water and chocolate has greater

explanatory power in considering the outcome (the quality of the

cake) than the fact that she at one point in her life wanted to 
grow

up to be like Lolita Lebron.  Do you agree?

 

I'll further stick out my neck and assert that what temperature she 


cooked the cake and for how long has greater explanatory power for 

considering the outcome than the fact that Anita is a Catholic who

goes to church on Sundays.  Do you agree?

 

I'' further claim that the skill she acquired as a chef having trained
at

a Parisian culinary school is now more important in terms of  the
quality

of the cake than the fact that Anita is divorced.  Do you
agree?

 

Now, I will agree with you that it is difficult or impossible to develop
a 

legitimate _scale_ for accurately and quantitatively ranking all of the
factors

(direct and indirect) that went into the baking of the cake. 
_Despite that_,

I still think it's possible in some legitimate but unscientific way to
attach 

greater or lesser causal importance to some variables.  Do you
agree?

 

In solidarity, Jerry

 



Stephen
Cullenberg             


Professor of Economics        

University of
California          


Riverside, CA
92521            



Office:  951-827-1573

Fax:      951-787-5685

Email:   stephen.cullenberg@ucr.edu

http://www.economics.ucr.edu/people/cullenberg.html

         









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