(fwd from Mark Lause) RE: Spain: colonizer and colonized

["Julio Huato" <juliohuato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Lause writes:

> How can historical materialism focus on "not the debate on history, but the
> logic to sort history out"? The latter entails a priority to bourgeois
> social science methods: the preoccupation with models that neglect
> materials, the real stuff of history.

Re. the 'methods of bourgeois social science', it'd help if you are more
specific.  What method of 'bourgeois social science' are you talking about?
And note that Marxism is both extension and antithesis of bourgeois social
science.

Historical materialism is, as David Schanoes explains, an iterative process
where historical experience and its interpretation interplay with logic.
This debate, however, looks to me like a contest of opinions on things that
happened in the 16th century or a bit later.

Admittedly, abstractions are one-sided, but discussions about things that
happened long ago are not necessarily all comprehensive or more solid.  The
effort of historians to document and frame past events in a way that makes
sense is to be praised, but we should always read history with the eyes wide
open and the mouth closed.

We have to use it all, but in the particular case of this discussion, I do
believe the biggest bang for the buck comes from clarifying the issues of
method.

Julio

_________________________________________________________________
Charla con tus amigos en línea mediante MSN Messenger:
http://messenger.yupimsn.com/