From: Michael Hoover <hoov-AT-freenet.tlh.fl.us>
Subject: Re: M-I: Marx was not an economic determinist
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 97 18:39:58 18000


the number of posts I had intended to respond to in the last few
weeks has reached unmanageable proportions...time constraints &
periodic service problems...in any event, I'm going to make a few
comments here & there with respect to a few posts...and I'll begin
with Louis P's header "Marx was not an economic determinist"...

was Marx a "lower case" economic determinist? - in contrast to
Economic Determinist per se...his "general theory" assigns 
primacy of place to the mode of production - particular 
combinations of relations & forces of production...this does not 
mean that modes of production are solely economic...it does 
indicate - to me anyway - that Marx saw politics in class society 
largely as a struggle for control of the mode of production...
which is not the same thing as claiming that economic developments 
and pursuit of more efficient production are the basic mechanisms 
of change...

as Richard Miller suggested:

"Interpreters of Marx are confronted by two very different kinds
of passages: general formulations that are highly condensed,
fragmentary or metaphorical, often all three, and discussions of
particular phenomena that are richly detailed, often quite
plausible and utterly contrary to natural readings of the general
formulations..."

does there have to be one Marx or the other?...Michael 


     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---