---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 13:35:07 +1000
From: Bruce R. McFarling <ecbm@cc.newcastle.edu.au>
To: "A. Gunder Frank" <agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: Gunder Frank and World Systems
On Wed, 29 May 1996, A. Gunder Frank wrote:
> Thanks to Bruce for the clarification, and thgat strengthens my position
> i think.
I'll note I was trying to send the message offlist, while this
appears written for the list. If I succeeded in sending the message
offlist, and you simply replied to it, this message came to me directly
and not to wsn.
> I am prepared to cite and argue at length about why doing
> synchronic "horizointally integrative marcohiatory" [the words are from
> the late Joe Fletcher] is THE important task in history, and not
> the "vertical" "Diachronic" type - unless of course it is
> WHOLE world diachrconic! - which means its also synchronic for each
> moment/period in time.
And, BTW, that's one of the appeals of GST to me compared to a
lot of the abstract system theories: 'dynamic' theories with all process
and no structure seem to have to import their 'entities' form outside the
theory: by assumption, or worse by uncritical reification. The
diachronic / synchronic loop, in which all structures are produced and
reproduced by processes, while the feasible range of process outcomes are
limited by the prevailing system structure, permits the entity of the
system analysis to be inside the theory.
Uhhm. Well, speaking in a rough sort of way, I mean.
Virtually,
Bruce R. McFarling, Newcastle, NSW
ecbm@cc.newcastle.edu.au