Re: Lisa's Anthro, Engels' OFPPS: econ base, 'group marriage'

[HANS DESPAIN <HANS.DESPAIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Below Carrol critiques Lisa for the misunderstanding of 'social
relations' as 'economic base', although I agree with Carrol, this is not
an unpopular understanding within Marxism, especially in the analytical
Marxist tradition (e.g. Cohen), where the social relations are
understood as part of the superstructure.

Carrol also is correct to point out that the base or substructure only
suggest the (materialist) 'conditions of possiblity' for the emergent
superstructure.

Lisa might be interested in D. Sayer's *Violence of Abstraction* 1987 as
an excellent publication contra-Cohen and the old "orthodox Marxism", on
historical materialism.  Moreover, there as been enough interest in this
book to possiblly organize a mini-seminar on the book, and its
understanding of historical materialism.

On Mon, 18 Dec 1995, Carrol Cox wrote:

>     In her latest comments on Engels, Lisa speaks of "examining the '
> 'economic base' and its effects upon social relations."
>
>     This doesn't make sense, for it leaves "economic base" empty of
> content.  The "social relations" **ARE** the "economic base," so it
> makes no sense to speak of the economic base having  "effects" upon
> itself.
>
>     In traditional Marxian terminology, Lisa is confusing the forces
> of production with the relations of production. It is the latter, not
> the former, which  constitute the "economic base."

[snip]




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