Reply to Lou on AM

[davidmci@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (David McInerney)]

Fri, 12 Jan 1996, Louis wrote (in seperate posts):

>Louis: I want to urge Justin to avoid the temptation to drop a name --
>Elster, Fisk, Taylor -- without explaining who or what the name means. I
>am aware that both he and David are talking to each other mainly, but
>there are lots of people on the list who don't have a professional
>training in philosophy.

Fisk I'm not familiar with.  Jon Elster's main texts on Marxism are _Making
Sense of Marx_ (Cambridge 1985) and _Karl Marx: An Introduction_ (Cambridge
1986).  This globe-trotting academic has chairs in Chicago and Oslo, and
has been known to visit rational-choice philosophers located in Philsophy
RSSS, ANU (i.e. directly above my office!) -- as has John Roemer.  Charles
Taylor is based in one of the Canadian Universities and seems to be popular
with Catholic post-grads!  He is an advisor to the Pope and has been having
a long-running love affair with Aristotle.  There was someone in my
department who is attempting to marry Taylor to Foucault, however, I think
he is having trouble divorcing Taylor from Aristotle!

>I would assume that this current [i.e. Analytical Marxism]
>has been inspired by the so-called Analytical method in modern
>philosophy? Correct? Do I have to read John Roemer to get a handle on
>this? I studied analytical philosophy in the mid-60's at the New School
>and thought it was sterile and irrelevant. Hate to sound so ignorant, but
>of what use can the likes of AJ Ayer be for Marxism?

Got it in one, Uncle Lou.  I remain lost as to what such stuff can offer
Marxism.  If you want to read some of this stuff, may I suggest the
following:

Alex Callinicos (ed.), _Marxist Theory_, O.U.P., Oxford, 1989.  (Yes, this
is the SWP Callinicos!  He likes this stuff.  Contains papers by Miller,
Cohen, Erik Olin Wright and Andrew Levine, Jon Elster, Alex Callinicos, and
Norman Geras.)

John Roemer (ed.), _Analytical Marxism_, C.U.P., Cambridge, 1986. (Better
of the two volumes.  Contains papers by John Roemer, Robert Brenner, Jon
Elster, Pranab Bardhan, Erik Olin Wright, Adam Przeworski, and Allen Wood.
There are several papers by Cohen, Elster, and Roemer.)

Brenner, Callinicos, Geras, Miller, and Wood would perhaps be described as
"fringe-dwellers".  Elster, Bardhan, Roemer, Cohen, Wright, Levine, and
Przeworski are hard-core members of the AM clique.

For something a little more concrete (and more interesting in my view), try:

Pranab Bardhan, _The Political Economy of Development in India_, Blackwell,
Oxford, 1984.  I read this in about three or four hours, its very short and
straightforward.


Mr. David McInerney,
Political Science Program, Research School of Social Sciences,
The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., AUSTRALIA  0200.
e-mail: davidmci@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ph: (06) 249 2134; fax: (06) 249 3051




     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

     ------------------