Re: Of Postmodernism, Spins, and What The Hell (fwd)

Robert Parks (bobp@lightlink.com)
Sun, 2 Jun 1996 14:04:57 -0400

Lois,

> Have you read Hanna
>Pikin's "Wittgenstein and Justice: On the Significace of Ludwig
>Wittgenstein for Social and Political Thought"?

I have the book, and read parts of it years ago... but haven't read it
recently. Good thought.

>I do have a little blurb on language games that I wrote for a handout in
>a class I taught. If people would like for me to post that, I'd be happy to.

I'd like to read your handout. Thanks.

snip....

>Well, I think that Freudian theory need not be treated as a "grand
>narrative". It is one when it becomes an authoritative source, however,
>as it often is, or has been. Is that what you mean about Marxism? Maybe
>you could tell us more what you have in mind here.

Marx was once asked what a "marxist" would say on a particular question....
His answer was... "I am not a 'Marxist'".

>> Thus, it appears to me that Marx was in fact speaking from a
>> post modern perspective of the conditions of empowerment.)
>
>To my way of thinking, that depends. It becomes a grand narrative when
>it becomes the truth that outweighs all else, when it provides the
>guideline of what is good without a continuous fresh review of contingent
>context.

That is exactly the point of Marx's theorizing, I think... which has been
taken by some others as an authoritative source of truth, rather than as a
methodology for continual reevaluation of the conditions of human
development.

Bob

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%