From: michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@SFU.CA)
Date: Fri Apr 14 2006 - 19:25:53 EDT
When pressed, I came up with the following. Any other ideas?/m >X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.3.4 >Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 19:17:58 -0400 >Reply-To: PEN-L list <PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU> >Sender: PEN-L list <PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU> >From: "michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@sfu.ca> >Subject: [PEN-L] an ad hominem response >To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU >X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Apr 2006 23:18:16.0686 >(UTC) FILETIME=[B5C7D8E0:01C66019] >X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.1 (2006-03-10) on antibody2.sfu.ca >X-Spam-Level: Spam-Level S >X-Virus-Scanned: by antibody.sfu.ca running antivirus scanner > >At 16:19 14/04/2006, Jim D wrote: > >>On 4/14/06, michael a. lebowitz <mlebowit@sfu.ca> wrote: >> > Nah, it's got to mean more than that: here's another use from a letter to >> > S. Meyers, 30 April 1867: >> > Volume I comprises the 'Process of Production of Capital'. As well as >> > setting out the general theory, I examine in >> great detail the conditions of >> > the English agricultural and industrial proletariat over the last 20 >> > years, ditto the condition of Ireland, basing myself on official sources >> > that have never previously been used. You >> will immediately realise that all >> > this serves me solely as an argumentum ad hominem. >> >>so what _does_ it mean, Chairman Mike? > > I've had to consult with Marx because > current usage treats an ad hominem argument as > fallacious (as in, yeah, but wasn't Marx's > grandfather a rabbi?). The question is--- how > did he use it? Eg., here 's something from a great 1842 note on censorship: > >>Moreover, the more than twenty years of illegal >>behaviour of the censors in defiance of the law >>would provide argumentum ad hominem that the >>press needs other guarantees than such general >>instructions for such irresponsible persons; it >>would provide the proof that there is a basic >>defect in the nature of the censorship which no law can remedy. > >The 3 examples suggest that Marx meant something >like an 'illustration'--- ie., not a logical >proof but a one relying upon empiricism. Thus, >years of censorship, evidence from blue books, >demonstration to the masses by examples. > cheers, > the chairman >ps. re Julio's citation of 'one of Marx's >favorite phrases was "nihil humani a me >alienum puto" [nothing human is alien to me]', that phrase was Feuerbach's. > >Michael A. Lebowitz >Professor Emeritus >Economics Department >Simon Fraser University >Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 > >Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at >Residencias Anauco Suites >Departamento 601 >Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 >Caracas, Venezuela >(58-212) 573-4111 >fax: (58-212) 573-7724 Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
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