histomat

[James Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Harry Cleaver writes: >>My problems with historical materialism are
several. First, I have NOT found it useful.... Second, methodologically I
think HM violates Marx's discussion in the Grundrisse about not
retrospectively projecting concepts from contemporary society, i.e.,
capitalism, back onto earlier social relationships. <<

Harry, doesn't it matter what definition one attaches to "historical
materialism"?

It seems to me that you're criticizing the "histomat" of the 3rd
international, which took Kautsky's fatalistic interpretation of history
and ran much too far with it.  Histomat is a rigid and technologically
determinist interpretation of Marx's 1859 sketch of the "guiding thread"
for his "studies." In that interpretation, you are right, Marx projects an
image of capitalism's dynanism onto the previous "modes of production" (as
does G.A. Cohen).  (Histomat was part of the dogmatic duo with "diamat").

But there are non-determinist interpretations of that sketch that fit
within the broad range of the materialist conception of history, those that
emphasize both clauses of "people make history but not exactly as they
please" (unlike the histomat or the Althusserian interpretations, which
emphasize only the second clause). There are those that interpret a guiding
thread as being a heuristic -- a set of questions -- rather than as a set
of pre-determined answers.

in pen-l solidarity,

Jim Devine   jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ.
7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA
310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not
certain; as far as they are certain, they really do not refer to
reality." -- Albert Einstein.