Note 107

What is the role of the state? It is to be the center of gravity, the anchoring point, within relationships that are built on social order.

Note 106

The self is a way of reconstructing the structural features of the world within representational contexts that reflect the roles of differentiation and their combinations with each other.

There is not one structural feature that differentiates the self, but multiple, and the primacy of the features will depend on the situation represented.

Again, this is not to say that the self is constitutionally functionalist, as the structural features remain the underlying foundational reference parameters within which the representational construct of the self is built, and which secures its identity.

Of course, the claim is made that these are pragmatic, not essential. But this is a feature of the world, not of thought.

Note 105

One of the tasks in philosophy is to understand the roles of content and structure, to distinguish features within concepts which embody necessary structural forms from that which is contingent.

For example, in the argument over the fact-value distinction, there is a two-level separation: the selection of principles underlying rational acceptability is value-driven, while the notion of fact which is attributed to statements which fulfil the condition of rational acceptability is not, because they are not constituted by an intentional stance. As an example, while it is meaningful to say that what a computer states is true, it is meaningless to say that what a computer did is immoral.

This division is valid because the fact-value distinction is a matter of structural difference in notions, not of the ontological or conceptual content of the statements themselves. Hence, genealogical considerations are not relevant in the case here.

Within public debate, it may be right to note that choice of facts, and the selection of frames within which we relate facts to each other, must rely on pragmatic values. This is not to say that notions of facts themselves are empty without values.

Note 104

Cultures are pluralistic interpretations of the fundamental principles they embody, in determining the content and interactions of myths and symbols. The depth and adaptiveness of the interpretation will determine the flourishing of the individuals and societies that carry them.

The task for the post-colonial societies is to identify these guiding principles for a post-industrial age, so as to better determine the elements within the forms of culture which must align to universal necessity, rather than remain pejoratively neglected by conservatives as manifestations of "the West", and those which remain unique to the cultures that embody them.

Note 103

The pressure of a modern economy on politics is to create a system which enables the incorporation of an array of an expanding scope of interactions.

The push factor is increasing fragility due to rising expectations, which leads to the development of its opposite: incorporative mechanisms.

The pull factor is the idealistic quest for the incorporation of increasing numbers of parameters to generate perfection of form. The macro-dynamic is driven by multiple micro-dynamics (individuals, organizations) with different end products but similar principles of evolution. Note, however, path dependency, and collapse and rejuvenation.