Looking-Glass Selves

I don't know if this will be of interest to anyone. However, I left Critical Realism almost a decade ago (for nominalism and social constructionism) and returned to Critical Realism a couple of months ago. Different factors were involved in my decision to leave. Now, however, I strongly regret having done so. Although I have never physically met Roy Bhaskar, I feel a deep spiritual kinship with him. The interesting part, to me anyway, is that I left Critical Realism before  Roy Bhaskar began publishing his reflections on meta-Reality (non-dualism). When I returned to Critical Realism, I had, independently, developed it into an approach to unity: http://structurization.com/ The basic idea is that the essence or unity of humanity (similar to Bhaskar's “the Real”) is not directly knowable. We approach or observe that essence through its attributes (perhaps somewhat similar to &dquo;the Actual”). Emancipation from oppression is an attribute of the unity or essenc...

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Interesting posting I found on the web: dauer passed the turing test dauer's Avatar Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: im in ur forumz. Posts: 3,080 dauer has a spectacular aura aboutdauer has a spectacular aura about Re: halakhically Thought of a few more: reformadox -- someone whose ideology and home minyan is likely reform but who's very observant conservadox -- same as above but with the conservative movement conservaform -- I think this usually means someone who's home minyan is conservative but whose practice and ideology is much more reform. conservadox and reformadox don't really make a whole lot of sense since their -doxy is conservative or liberal. might be better conservaprax and reformaprax. It's a bit silly we need the word conservadox since by definition all conservative jews who are engaged in their judaism are fairly observant. With some minor differences, R. Isaac Klein's code is pretty close to something Orthodox (granted he was older-school and ...

In defining oneself, one should, in my view, always begin with the general and then move to the specific. In other words, discuss oneself deductively, not inductively. For instance, I would define myself as a critical sociologist, an advocacy journalist, and a radical historian. Critical sociology is the general term. From it, I can say I am a sociologist of religion, a social theorist, a public sociologist, and a clinical sociologist. Similarly, advocacy journalism is the general term. From it, I can refer to my focus on radical journalism or critical journalism. (That last term has so many usages, including referring to critical theory, that it is probably best avoided.) Finally, radical history is the general term. From it, I can refer to new cultural history (Foucault, etc.), to social history, to intellectual history, to a variety of Marxist approaches, and, regarding time period, to contemporary history. The advantage of this approach is that it allows the other person to immedia...

Here are two quotations from the inimitable Aleister Crowley, the originator of the system of Thelemic Magick. In both of them, Crowley asserts that he is a nominalist. I request that you read them carefully. I will comment afterwards. In philosophy I was a realist of the Cabbalistic school. In 1900 I left England for Mexico, and later the Far East, Ceylon, India, Burma, Baltistan, Egypt and France. It is idle there to detail the corresponding progress of my thought; and passing through a stage of Hinduism, I had discarded all deities as unimportant, and in philosophy was an uncompromising nominalist. I had arrived at what I may describe as the position of an orthodox Buddhist; but with the following reservations. I cannot deny that certain phenomena do accompany the use of certain rituals; I only deny the usefulness of such methods to the White Adept. I consider Hindu methods of meditation as possibly useful to the beginner and should not therefore recommend them to be discar...

Metanarratives – totalizing schemes or language games – are, like medieval first principles, frequently circular. The end, triumphantly, confirms the beginning, However, the circularity of Ken Wilber's integralism , even more so than the better-known version (in my field) by Pitirim A. Sorokin, is particularly vicous. Wilber's model begins with the mythic premodern, continues with the modern and, then, the postmodern, and culminates in the integral. To Wilber, the integral incorporates, and explains, the previous stages. Here is Wilber : Instead of attacking the paucity of the modern and postmodern worldviews—which is the standard move by spiritual and new-paradigm advocates—it is perhaps more adept to reformulate and reconstruct the premodern interpretations of Spirit in light of modern and postmodern developments, such that the enduring fundamentals of the premodern, modern, and postmodern forms of Spirit's own display can all be honored by trimming their absolutisms and ...

There was only relevant one post in this blog (from February 5, 2009). It was titled, Villains and Others : "Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged." --Star Trek: TNG, "The Drumhead" The other posting is in my autism blog .