It's a Battlefield Out There

James Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Fri Dec 11 03:43:39 PST 1998


On Thu, 10 Dec 1998 22:48:12 EST JKSCHW at aol.com writes:
>In a message dated 98-12-10 13:36:20 EST, you write:
>
><< R: you mention that Cohen uses the deductive nomological mode of
>explanation
> from Hempel to defend Marx's theory of history.
>
>JKS: This isn't quite right. I try to explain what Cohen does in my
>paper
>Functional Explanation and Metphysical Individualism, Philosophy of
>Science,
>June 1993. He's not, in fact, a Hempelian.
>

Perhaps Justin can summarize his paper. Certainly, in the text of _Karl Marx's Theory of History_ he presents his analysis of Marx as drawing upon Hempel's treatment of scientific explanations. In fact Hempel is virtually the only philosopher of science, cited by Cohen in that book. If is is Justin's thesis that Cohen was not being a Hempelian, then that this is going to require some argumentation.

Jim Farmelant

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