Scott and dialectics

[Scott Johnson]

MICHAEL What though of his tendency to reduce the interaction between
universal and context-specific particulars to the latter? Isn'r
reductionist
the counter-dialectical strategy par excellence? I may have got Scott
wrong
here and if so I apologise in advance.

SCOTT:
   Apology accepted. :-) What riled me about, for example, Haggarty's
post was that his approach would have denied that the particular,
subjective evaluation of music could have any universal import, that it
could be objective (that is, that evaluations of music as high or low
were anything other that expressions of "class conflict" -- and can we
put that phrase to bed already?). I just don't see the charge of
reductionism or a solely "particular" counter-thrust to universalism. In
fact, I want to recover the objective claims of what has been written
off as merely subjective and particular -- just like the Critical Theory
is concerned to in envisioning a social science which explicitly
incorporated its own evaluative activity in order articulate it and to
criticize the "status quo".

   I intend to clear things up here. I'll hint for the moment that I'm
not concerned with proper "dialectics".  More later. 
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------
                     Scott Johnson

105 W. 1st St. #214                sjohn@cp.duluth.mn.us
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 --

A memo signed by Major Okuntimo of the Rivers State Internal
Security Task Force, dated May 12th 1994, states: 
"Shell operations still impossible unless ruthless military
operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to
commence."

-- From a web page (http://www.gem.co.za/ELA/ken.html)
dedicated to executed Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, 
who led a group resisting Shell Oil's activities in his
homeland. The memo referred to was sent 10 days before 
Saro-Wiwa's arrest.