Young Master Smeet
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http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/refinery-shiite-militias.htmlJuan Cole says IS is known as Daesh in the region (much better handle, really):
Quote:Daesh is estimated to make $30 million a month from petroleum sales. It isn’t actually that much in the larger scheme of things. Contrary to the somewhat breathless US reporting, Daesh is not the most wealthy terrorist group ever. At the height of the Iraq War a decade ago, Shiite militias probably siphoned off some $5 billion annually from the national oil production.Cole's analysis is that Daesh is being routed, which means the euqllay unspeakable gangster Assad will regain Syria.
The objects of study are different because some are repeatable and amenabl to experiment, whereas some events are not repeatable and capable only of explanation. The unifying force is history and historical explanation and the understaqnding of the human role in both processs. No amount of power effects the peterbations of venus but it can (has and does) effect the decision and process to look at them.Science, to me, is any organised system of knowledge. Hence the sweet science of boxing.
Lbird,well my starting point would be that I understand the term ideology very different from you, I don't use it to mean a set of ideas or creed but a process of power relations and their effect on ideas and prceptions of the world. In that sense I don't subscribe to an ideology.I'd say that the objects of study are different for sociology and physics, but that both are amenable to historical explication and analysis.
Quote:So, what's your opinion on the various attempts to unify materialism and idealism in the 19th century? Do you think Marx achieved this, or not?Yes, I think he did. See, life is much easier when you ask me my opinions rather than assuming them, incorrectly, based on misreadings of my posts.
SocialistPunk wrote:Surely in a socialist society there would also be a need to contain someone who has harmed another person or persons to prevent them from repeating the same act?Indeed, but how long do we hold them in that protective mode? I assume we're eliminating a retributive element and a deterrent element, here. But even if we are assured they won't do it again, we may have to hold them for their own safety as well beyond that.The basic principle is that society must have a means of defending itself, and out of 7 billion people we cannot assume they will all go over to peaceful cuddliness and some will need to be dealt with. For example, there are in the UK about 60 individuals who are so seriously dangerous they will never be released from prison (and I assume that they will have to be detained somehow in socialism).We can assume in socialism, largely/dramatically freed from economic crime, we can throw a lot more time, attention and effort into dealing with persistent offenders against the person.
LBird wrote:So, now you have it on 'good' authority (I'm tempted to say 'elite') that no-one united the material and ideal, where does that leave you?Herein, Ladies and gentlemen, we Lbird's scientific method: theorising well in advance of the evidence, and reading things into texts that are not said.
LBird wrote:I think that your colleague is probably a bit of a bluffer.And herein, ladies and gentlemen, we have LBird's scientific method: theorising in advance (or without or even irrespective) of the facts. They are prepared to make that statement without knowing the person, their background, details or even the precise nature of the discussion.
I was chatting with a colleague who is a student of Hegel, I mentioned these discussions, and he mentioned that basically every bugger and his brother in the 19th century claimed to have resovled the philosophical disctinction between idealism and materialism…
My opinion is that a footballer doesn't fall into the same category as a doctor, teacher, etc. but I accept it is arguable, and it is a valid case (i.e. that campaigners have a legitimate point), the case that Evans has been pubnished and should be allowed to return to his trade, as any hod carrier would, is also valid. I think the determining factor is that part of his trade is publicity and promotion, and he simply cannot do that now, but the club retain hopes of sellign him.IMNSHO everything I say here is my opinion only, and so does not need to be prefaced by an IMNSHO.
LBird, well, i was thinking of
Quote:First part of the paragraph: "Labor is the source of all wealth and all culture."Labor is not the source of all wealth. Nature is just as much the source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as labor, which itself is only the manifestation of a force of nature, human labor power.Which seems to me, at a basic reading, as being a refuattion of your case of what Marx's views were. If Nature is a producer of use values, that means there is, necesarilly, a nature beyond human production, a reality, if you will.This isn't 'referring back to a bible' but given your proposnsity to read texts sideways (as in your overreading of the theses on Feurbach) going back to the text becomes necessary. All we can establish through this is what Charlie said, but given you make claims about what he said, we do need to test them.
It's not the teacher or Doctors ability to influence, it's also their physical proximity: their work gives them access and power. Yes, it is a judgement call, and one worthy of debate.
1) Utopian socialism isn't necessarilly idealist.2) A qualified thing is still that thing. A footballer can be a Gaelic Footballer, an Association Footballer, and American Footballer or a Rugby Footballer (non-exhaustive list): they are all still footballers.3) Lets look at the letter to Sorge, and add some context. Marx is complaining about
Charlie wrote:half-mature students and super-wise doctors who want to give socialism a “higher ideal” orientation, that is to say, to replace its materialistic basis (which demands serious objective study from anyone who tries to use it) by modern mythology with its goddesses of Justice, Freedom, Equality and Fraternity.additionally Marx defines utopian socialism as
Quote:playing with fancy pictures of the future structure of societyso not idealism (philosophical sense).https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1877/letters/77_10_19.htm
