[lbo-talk] Giuliani: I hope Obama has read Amity Shlaes

Mike Beggs mikejbeggs at gmail.com
Thu Feb 5 16:43:51 PST 2009


On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:24 AM, James Heartfield < Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:


>
> All of which demonstrates not the centrality of model-making to Marxist
> social theory, but the problematic character of model-making for Marxist
> social theory.
>
Doesn't this show rather the problematic character of _bad_ model-making (or at least model-using) for Marxist social theory?

Is the objection to models that they necessarily hold some elements as constant parameters which in reality are in flux? But as long as the modeller is aware of the real flux, can't this be a useful way of identifying tendencies, so long as the argument is not drawn from the model that the tendency is always going to be actually manifest in events.

Cheers, Mike



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