From: "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-gis.net>
Subject: BHA: Re: The Primacy of class- urgent
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 14:43:23 -0400


Hi Gary--

> However what is driving me crazy is that I have a clear memory of Bhaskar
> saying somewhere something like "arguably the capital-labour relation is
> the most important".  However I canna find it.
>
> Does any one know of this quote and could direct me to it?

I have a vague recollection of something like this too, maybe in DPF.  But
all I've found is the following, from PON2 (p 42): "Now, as is well known,
although it can be established a priori that material production is a
necessary condition for social life, it cannot be proved that it is the
ultimately determining one.  And so, like any other fundamental conceptual
blueprint or paradigm in science, historical materialism can only be
justified by its fruitfulness in generating project encapsulating research
programmes capable of generating sequences of theories, progressively richer
in explanatory power."  Two pages later (44) he argues that "The subject
matter of sociology is ... relations of production."  But here, "relations
of production" encompasses quite a bit more than economics.  Not exactly
what you hoped for, I suspect, but perhaps it come close enough.

> So there are shades of opinion within CR as to whether class is primary.

I'd have to agree with this!  For example, Archer seems to want a certain
exceptionalism for human contact with nature, and (interestingly) keeps the
door open just enough to allow for the possibility of God.

---
Tobin Nellhaus
nellhaus-AT-mail.com
"Faith requires us to be materialists without flinching": C.S. Peirce




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