internal vs. external change dr. green. change vs. permanence everything changes—heraclitus...
TRANSCRIPT
Internal vs. External Change
Dr. Green
Change vs. Permanence
• Everything changes—Heraclitus
• Nothing changes—Parmenides
• Something changes and some things don’t—Aristotle
Aristotle’s Theory of Change
• The view that dismisses all change is incompatible with the facts of experience
• The view that everything changes is conceptually incoherent– If you dyed a t-shirt and all aspects of the t-
shirt changed, the would be no t-shirt to contain the dye because it would have changed into something other than a t-shirt
– Every change requires a substrate that is conserved through the change
Conditions of change
• A conserved substrate
• Two opposing states, s(1) and s(2)
• At t(1), the substrate has s(1) and at t(2) is has s(2)
• An initiating cause that caused the change of state from s(1) to s(2)
Initiating Cause
• Theories of type of initiating cause affect– Methodology– Types of Theories
Initiating Cause
• Externalistic theory of change—the cause of any change is outside the social system
• Arises from a mechanistic metaphysics
Mechanistic Theory of Change
• Complex situations are a combination of simple elements
• All the elements are qualitatively the same• Each element exists independently of every
other element• Each elements remain constant over time• Each element is passive• A complete analysis is the sum of the simples
that are present in a closed situation
Examples
• Environmentalism– Change due to exogenous shocks to a
system in equilibrium– Sociological theory of crime
• Behaviorism– Every response comes from an external
stimulus
Reductionism
• Society explained by– Psychology, which can be explained by
• Biology, which can be explained by– Chemistry, which can be explained by
» Physics
Immanent Theory of Change
• Every system has within itself the seeds of change
• Derives from a holistic metaphysics
Holistic Metaphysics
• Reality is a process of constituting complex systems
• Complex systems have ontology priority in the study of reality
• There is a multiplicity of such complexly organized systems
• Complex systems are self-directing and self-organizing
Immanent Change
• Focuses on– Inner potentialities– Inner tendencies or efforts of the system itself
Combinational Theory
• Which is most important?
Sorokin’s Arguments
• Empirical support
• Conceptual arguments– Processual nature of reality– Decay through use– Components are changing
• Humans• Meanings
– Constant environment with changing system
Critique of Externalism
• Indefinite postponement of answer
• End regression by– Infinite series with no self-acting agent– Positing some self-acting agent—First Mover– Ascribing immanent change to some aspect of
the system, such as the – Ascribing change to nothing
Consequences
• Immanent generation of consequences
• Immanent self-determination– Forms, phases, and transitions– External accelerate or retard– Acorn becomes an oak– Realization of inherent potentialities
Consequences
• Different degrees of self-determination– Dependence and independence are adjusted
• More integrated, the more self-determining– Causally in institutions– Meanings in culture
• More self-determining, the more independent of external forces
Example-Minsky
• Minsky defines three financial positions of increasing fragility: – Hedge finance: income flows are expected to
meet financial obligations in every period. – Speculative finance: the firm must roll over
debt because income flows are expected to only cover interest costs.
– Ponzi finance: income flows won’t even cover interest cost, so the firm must borrow more or sell off assets simply to service its debt.
Minsky
• Over a protracted period of good times, economies tend to move from a financial structure dominated by hedge financing to a structure with increasing speculative and Ponzi financing.
Economic Cycles
• Capitalism economies subject to an immanent tendency to unsustainable credit expansion
• Periods of credit expansion reach unsustainable limits, i.e., debt saturation
• Periods of debt liquidation follow