Later
there would be encounters with the “poor-man’s” Braudel in the work of
theorists such as Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, who
would thoroughly demolish biological and cultural racisms
through their analysis of geography or the material features of the environment
in which people lived, as well as other historians like William McNiell.
I add cultural racism, because text-based/signifier-based theorists are
thoroughly unable to explain why certain cultures rose to prominence in the
world without appealing to something “superior” in the signifying-systems of
those cultures that rose to dominance. We see it, for example, in Zizek’s
claim that there’s something superior in the European, Christian legacy that
gave them dominance. Theorists like Diamond, McNiell, and Braudel are
thoroughly able to demolish this cultural racism, this idea that there was
something “special” about the Greeks, by analyzing geography, the prevalence of
domesticatible animals and plants, available metals, growing seasons,
etc. For them it wasn’t the culture, but the geography; and this based on
the axiom that peoples always make maximal use of the resources available to
them because, well, folks are smart wherever they live.
Greed, Self-Interest, and the Extended Order of Voluntary
Transactions from Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux Nov 12, 2012
What
F.A. Hayek called the extended market order is one such greater good that has
emerged as the unintended by-product of what are mostly self-interested actions
by individuals within free, private-property markets… The key is freedom – free
entry into, and exit from, markets; freedom of prices to adjust to supply and
demand conditions; freedom of consumers to spend their money as they judge
best; and freedom from excessively burdensome regulations and taxation, as well
as from threats to the security of private property rights.
The
invisible hand is both a valuable metaphor and a valid notion. There
is, of course, no real see-through hand guiding human actions. But the
idea that each of us is led, as we pursue our own self-interests within free
private-property markets (and, more generally, through a rich assortment of
voluntary arrangements), unintentionally to promote a larger and beneficial
end, is unquestionably correct.
Comment on The Freedom of the Integral Yoga by August
Timmermans by R from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by R Nov 13,
2012
Read
with James, Bergson, Whitehead and others of the time it is clear how valuable
his contribution is to early 20th century metaphysics but it’s become a
minefield today to tread there because there are all kinds of knots and snares
one can get caught up in nowadays with metaphysics – usually in a reification,
like our auro-jihadi friends – whose misplaced concreteness – is threatening to
others because they mistake their ideology for reality….
The
necessity of rebirth hinges on the ultimate meaning of the manifestation of the
universe. If it is random chance, or purely mechanical machinery, there is no
necessity of rebirth. If, on the other hand, there is a conscious Will and
Purpose to the universe, and the human being is part of that purpose and
carrying out an evolutionary role, then rebirth becomes a centerpiece of the
process…
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