Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 14:31:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: marxian economics


I apologize for having taken an extremely vulgarly determinist position. 
Relative autonomy expresses my sentiments, though the degree of 
relativity seems to vary highly. Specifically: how much autonomy are 
intellectuals displaying today? It seems, in academia at least, that the 
degree of relative autonomy is a function of distance from the economics 
and politics departments; they keep the Marxoids in English where they 
can do no serious harm.

Doug

Doug Henwood [dhenwood-AT-panix.com]
Left Business Observer
212-874-4020 (voice)
212-874-3137 (fax)


On Tue, 27 Sep 1994, Andy Daitsman wrote:

> >ANdy Daitsman Wrote:
> >"sounds like relative autonomy to me," in reference to freedoms associated
> >to private groups and associations.
> > 
> >Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, shows that difference of opinion, and its
> >appearance, is not autonomy.
> >Travis
> >
> 
> Yeah, but it doesn't look to me like Phil is talking just about simple 
> differences of opinion.  As I understood him, intellectuals within academia 
> help define culture, and culture in turn helps define the social formation.  
> So the institutional independence of academia from direct control by the 
> bourgeoisie (one of Phil's positions in his debate with Doug) can allow 
> intellectuals to define culture in ways that contradict the interests of a 
> sector or even the entirety of the bourgeoisie.  In other words, relative 
> autonomy.
> 
> Yours,
> Andy Daitsman
> 
> 


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