9k:RD/ atom-like entity (Q174)

Main entry

atom-like entity (meta-Marxism) -> an atom-like entity is a mostly-indivisible unit which contains the capacity for particular patterns when combined with particular other atom-like entities. a chemical element is the prototypical example: two hydrogens and one oxygen form water. but one hypothesis I am trying to investigate is the possibility that individuals of particular philosophies are atom-like entities, and when put together in various "compounds" they form specific sociophilosophies (types of political parties, types of Marxist tendencies, etc). I feel like there is some remote possibility that one day there could just be a periodic table of ideologies that is as prosaic and numerical as the study of chemical elements and chemical compounds.
an atom-like entity is not an entity that can be considered in total isolation from all others akin to a helium atom. I really don't like models like Rothenberg's that imply that, because not even chemistry works that way. chemistry may be reductionist, but the predictable emergences from the elements are the whole study of chemistry.