Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 22:22:43 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Marxism and reductionism



At the risk of tooting my own horn, let me recommend my own paper on the
topic: JUstin Schwartz, Functional Explanation and Metaphysical
Individualism, Philosophy of Science, June 1993. It doesn't cover the
gamut and is mainly concerned with the issue of whether Marxists can talk
about social entities, but it's really very good. --JUstin

On Wed, 31 Jul 1996 GACOTTER-AT-well.stats.govt.nz wrote:

>  I am interested in the problem of reductionism in Marxist theory. The
> term reductionism is used as a term of abuse by many social theorists -
> but why. Marxism is seen as reductionist because it posits that political
> social and other events can, in the last instance, be subsumed to the
> economic.  The ongoing crisis of capitalism, seems to me to indicate that
> reductionism is a valid theoretical approach to understanding what is
> going on.
> 
> However, reductionism is still seen as a problem in Marxist theory. I am
> trying to write an assignment re this subject, and need to check out
> whether - is reductionism a problem, if its a problem then how can we
> overcome it while retaining a Marxist analysis.
> 
> Any suggestions, discussion would be much appreciated.  This is the first
> time I have posted to any list as I'm a newcomer to the internet.
> Thanks
> 
> Gerry Cotterell
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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