Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 10:17:52 -0800
From: djones-AT-uclink.berkeley.edu (rakesh bhandari)
Subject: Re: meszaros? (fwd)


Meszaros *Beyond Capital* was reviewed by Daniel Singer in *The Nation* a
few issues back.  Singer recommended that discussion center on Meszaros's
analysis of capital's order of social metabolic reproduction.  One of the
key ideas in the uncontrollability of capital, an idea that is similar to
Postone's analysis of 'run-away' nature of capital.

Meszaros' discussion of Lukacs' *History and Class Consciousness* is
critical and profound; I especially enjoyed his discussion of Lukacs's
changing relation to Max Weber.  Like Postone, Meszaros offers a criticism
of Lukacs' idea of the identical subject/object--this was the most
difficult section for me in the chapter.  I have not finished Meszaros'
book (only read a few chapters here and there) and will not be able to do
so for some time (teaching two classes this summer and working on an ethnic
studies dissertation), though a few years back I could not put down what I
thought was Meszaros' magnum opus--*The Power of Ideology*; I think the
chapter there on "science as legitimator of ideological interests" is very
important.
Rakesh




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