Re: [OPE] Dialectics for the New Century

davez@kth.se

dogangoecmen@aol.com wrote:
> you seem to oppose to everything that is linked to Marx, his 
> predecessors and followers.

I think this is a real problem among certain Marxists. You are reading a 
dead German philosopher from the 19th century as if he were a prophet. 
Marxists ought to read Marx as Darwinists read Darwin. At least if they 
which to be scientific. If I think Marx was wrong or had limited 
knowledge of certain things, such as the theory of money or production 
prices, does that suggest that I oppose him, his predecessors and 
followers on everything?

See my post: http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/OPE/archive/0802/0013.html

> We have started this debate because you said dialectics is 
> pseudo-scientific. 

If you look at the record this is not true. What I said was that 
dialectics was either pre-scientific or pseudo-scientific, depending of 
course on how it is used.

> That is to say that its laws exist in natural, social and 
> epistemological relations independently from our wills wishes and so 
> on. So you can use them consciously or deny them. In the first case 
> you will have conscious work and life. In the second case the laws of 
> dialectics will bring themselves against your will, that is, behind 
> your back. it is up to you which way you prefer. But it is good to see 
> that your big claim disappeared.

Dogan, this paragraph verges on pseudo-science. Now you are giving 
dialectics the role of causal laws as is used in scientific theories. 
But nothing of what you said here has any testable content.

Compare this with the case if someone told you there is something called 
"force" that acts regardless of your will, according to three laws. It 
is only if these laws had testable consequences verified by observations 
that we would find them useful. Otherwise they are discarded according 
to the principles of the scientific method.

//Dave Z
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