A mode of thought’s developmental limits are predetermined by its initial terms.

Evidence

It is, however, one of the most basic lessons of dialectical method that the potentialities for development of a given mode of thought lie predetermined and, as it were, foreordained within the very structure of the initial terms themselves, and reflect the characteristics of its point of departure. The limits on any large-scale projection of the sociological figure here described are therefore implicit in the nature of the objects synthesized. Like wit, the Adorno trope drew its force from the instantaneity of the perception involved, and it is only too clear that to juxtapose against its historical background a cultural item understood in an isolated, atomistic way—whether it be an individual work, a new technique or theory, even something as vast as a new movement understood as a separate entity, or a period style detached from its historical continuum—is to ensure the construction of a model that cannot but be static. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 43

Categorization

• DEFINE: States the dialectical principle of predetermined development and why atomistic juxtaposition necessarily produces static models.
• XREF: The ‘limits implicit in the point of departure’ echoes Adorno’s negative dialectics and Hegel; the critique of atomistic juxtaposition maps directly onto the reader’s interest in how Jameson later critiques postmodern pastiche. — connects to: Ideology works by setting the limits of what is considered permissible to think.; Predictive capacity lies in the will, not in the worldview itself; The fundamental question of why there is something rather than nothing marks the limits of knowledge tied to limits of mind. — What Are The Limits of Knowledge? (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Ideology works by setting the limits of what is considered permissible to think. #complicates (0.88)
• Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them #qualifies (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787
• One’s class origins enable unique insight while also limiting what the mind can see #exemplifies (0.85)
• Power-laden words constrain how and whether people can think certain thoughts. #complicates (0.82)
• Predictive capacity lies in the will, not in the worldview itself #complicates (0.72)