This is a nice short post on abstraction and reification of ideas. Most of what we deal with today in the "Antropocene epoch" is human artifacts, some of which actually exist along with natural objects as modifications of natural objects. But many and many of the most significant are mental constructs. These mental constructs then take on a reality of their own through the social construction of reality.
While you are reading this, keep Citizen's United in mind and remember than the people who gave it to use are dressed in robes and sit in high seats.
Voltaire
Religion is All Good and Well….
Russ
"But then people start reifying abstractions. Not just using terms as necessary conceptual placeholders, but believing in the reality of the terms they’re using. "
ReplyDelete"neo-liberals!" and "deep state!" are perfect examples of this... they are conceptual placeholders of the left but they dont exist in reality... so its never going to work if the lefties goes to war against "neo-liberals!" they dont exist... other than in the minds of the lefties...
As opposed to Bush saying "ok you've covered your ass..." when career intel officers are warnign him about al queda.... which is REAL incompetence that can be exposed and challenged like Trump is doing... or "we're going to war, go shopping so we dont run out of money!" as an economic policy for the GWOT....
"But then people start reifying abstractions. Not just using terms as necessary conceptual placeholders, but believing in the reality of the terms they’re using. These include government, law, money as a unit of account, nation, sect, race, reason, science."
ReplyDeleteSo this guy is saying "government isnt real!" or "there are no laws!" or "there are no nations!" ????? wtf is this guy even talking about????
He is some sort of whacky libertarian here: "This is when we use government and law to “create” things like corporations, patents and copyrights, fiat money, and then convince ourselves that these are real."
"fiat money!" isnt real? dont tell me but "gold IS REAL money!!!" ??????
"remember than the people who gave it to use are dressed in robes and sit in high seats."
ReplyDeleteThat's the fundamental problem with US "democracy"! Someone (hopefully Trump) needs to demolish that through court packing for "REAL conservatives." Same with abolishing filibuster. Then it becomes meaningless as both sides use court packing if necessary.
Citizens United recognized corporations as legal (fictitious) persons as having the rights of natural persons, and in some ways rights superior to natural persons in effect.
ReplyDeleteMitt Romney: "Corporations are people."
This is constructing social reality out of mental constructs (ideas). Maybe Platonists think that ideas are real but most others don't.
The opposite extreme is Margaret Thatcher: "There is no such thing as society."
The middle ground is understanding how abstraction works, orders of abstraction and the use of abstraction in the social construction of institutions as cultural artifacts.
To the degree that ideas are human constructs, humans have control over them. The agenda of certain cohorts is to use these constructs to influence and control others.
"Corporations are people!" well if you cant refute that absurdity then I cannot help... might as well continue chasing neo-liberal ghosts ie spinning MMT wheels for another 20 years..
ReplyDeleteThe Golden Calf was not just a calf.
ReplyDelete