Re: Rational Choice/Analytical M. (Was Nazi racial ...

[cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Carrol Cox)]

    Louis wonders if he will have to read Roemer or go back to A.J. Ayer. A
good place to start is with with Ellen Meiksins Wood,  "Rational Choice
Marxism: Is the Game Worth the Candle?" NLR 177 (Sept/Oct 1989), 41-88. It
is an extremely powerful article. See also criticisms by Alan Carling and
Alex Callinicos with Wood's reply, in NLR 184 (Nov/Dec '90). Not only do
Roemer, Elster, etc. not succeed in "going beyond Marx"; they throw away
all of Marx's gains and make history unintelligible.

    Incidentally, Wood is also superb in this article in exploding the
young Marx's silliness aphoristic remarks on the relations of production
becoming a "fetter" on the forces of production--which she shows forms
no part of Marx's developed theory, and which lead to technological deter-
minism and metaphysics when taken seriously.

    Carrol


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