On Tue, 1 Feb 2000 22:03:07 EST JKSCHW at aol.com writes:
> In a message dated 00-02-01 19:20:28 EST, you write:
>
> << James Farmelant wrote:
> >
> > I wonder how Justin and Sam would evaluate Alan Carling's
> > formulation of a weakened technological determinism?
> >>
>
> I read Carling a long time ago, when I taught a grad seminar on
> Cohen & his
> critics, and may have assigned a bit, but I can't recall any
> details. I can
> say this. I think the whole effort to get some version of an 1859
> Preface
> model of historicial dyanmics off the ground as a framework for
> thinking
> about Marx or history was a bad mistake that led the analytical
> Marxists who
> attempted it astray. An ahistorical theory of history, what an odd
> thought.
> Marx at least never said it was more than a Leitfaden, a guiding
> thread.
I suppose the approach they chose to take can be in part understood by the fact that they were reacting against while still remaining influenced by Althusserianism (see Cohen's preface to KMTH). Althuuser's structural Marxism left little room for a consideration of historical change as such. Cohen sought to correct this by offering a theory of history which in itself turned out to be rather ahistorical.
Jim F.
>
> --jks
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