Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 1973"

Neighbourhood committees and popular courts in the social transformation of Cuba

Abstract: This dissertation is a study of the role in the political and social transformation of Cuba of two of the most distinctive institutional products of the Castroist regime's pursuit of mass-''participation" in the construction of socialism: the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs) and the Popular Courts (Tribunales Populares). Based upon field-work conducted during the author's fifteen month stay in Cuba in 1968-69, the dissertation documents the genesis , development and day-to-day functioning of these formations up to mid-1973, employing for this purpose the findings of an intensive investigation of organisational life in a selected working class neighbourhood of Havana, as well as printed sources. The role of the institutional framework of the revolutionary regime in fostering or inhibiting significant social change is further probed in an analysis of the problems of change corresponding to the trilogy sex, religion and colour. Whilst three phases are distinguished in the evolution of the CDRs since 1960, it is found that this organisation has always functioned more effectively as an agency of political 'integration' than as a counter-weight to bureaucratic forms of rule. Both positive and negative features are ascribed to the Popular Court experiment, which is expected to have a permanent influence on the development of the judicial system following the letter's impending "unification". Adopting an interpretation of the legacy of the pre-revolutionary society which conflicts at certain points with previous treatments, the analysis of contemporary social trends concludes that progress in this area since 1959 has been uneven. This is attributed to overall deficiencies in the institutional framework of the regime, especially to the absence of organisations of the soviet type and to the continued weakness of the Cuban Communist Party.

Gordon Kaufman's Theology: Some Questions

Abstract: THE title of Gordon Kaufman's latest book, God the Problem1, is indicative of the fact that he has rejected the neo-orthodox position that the theologian can assume the meaning of his key terms without discussing them in a philosophic context (GP 24, 44-45 n. 6, 226). The key terms are primarily "God" and "act of God"; the philosophic context chosen is that of "ordinary language" philosophy. He believes this philosophic approach will make it possible to "explore the most subtle nuances," and to clarify "many of the puzzles and paradoxes of much recent theology" (GP 6). Whereas I applaud the recognition of the need to discuss the meaning of these terms, I doubt that ordinary language analysis can offer either the precision or the rethinking that is necessary if the problems surrounding the use of these terms are to be resolved. Kaufman's central notion is that the God of Christian faith can best be thought of in terms of the model of agency. He attempts to "articulate notions of divine transcendence and agency that make possible retention of a conception of God as one who acts upon and interacts with his creatures" (GP 15-16). This notion of God is to be based on our understanding of ourselves as agents (GP xvii-xviii). I agree with Kaufman on this general point, but I find that his attempt to explicate it leaves many questions. I will raise six of these questions: (1) Can we believe that our idea of God corresponds to reality? (2) Is it necessary to make intelligible God's relation to the world? (3) What analogy is to be used for conceiving the divine action? (4) Is God so transcendent that he cannot be experienced? (5) Is God omnipotent in the traditional sense? (6) Is there an ontological dualism of two kinds of actualities? The systematic intent behind this questioning is to suggest that ordinary language analysis does not provide the precision needed to discuss these types of issues, and that an explicitly metaphysical philosophy, such as that of Whitehead and Hartshorne, is needed.