[PEN-L:11605] Re: Empiricism, was Re: UK Agricultural Revolution

["James M. Blaut" <70671.2032@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To Wojtek:

#11530: You claim to be (unlike me) "an empirical
scientist."   Try to get your facts straight. In c.1550
Western and Central Europe (with Italy) was an economic
unit as far as finances, merchant capital, and
manufacturing were concerned. Throughout the Middle Ages
the principal economic cores of europe were the lower
Rhine-Flanders region and northern Italy. The capital for
Spain and Portugal mostly came from these and other
extra=Iberian regions. Why should it surprise you that both
the profits from colonialism and the stimulus that
colonialism gave to economic development and the rise of
capitalism were then centered in these two core regions
(and a few others such Catalunya and part of Austria)?

And to say that Germany (which by the way didn't exist as a
country in those days) didn't receive "any meaningful
benefits from colonialism" is -- what polite word can I
use? -- ignorant.The Welsers and the Fuggers dwelt therein.

And what is this "semantic gimmick" that I use?

Your "multiple regression with 12 variables" is basically
grounded in invented "variables," not in historical
reality. Garbage in, garbage out. Likewise your "6 cases."
Babble.

"[Your] strategy seems to be based on drowning your causal
model (if any) in a constant stream of quotations, name
dropping, and literary references. That makes good talmudic
scholarship, but it do not quite qualifies as empirical
science."

Quit smoking that stuff.

568. "third worldism is a form of messianic cult of the
kind that were popular in 19th Europe (originating in the
hegelian right, if memory serves). Essentially the idea was
to portray a disadvantaged nation...as the 'messiah of
nations' that is a nation whose suffering significantly
contributes to the 'salvation' i.e., prosperity of other
nations....disadvantaged groups could vicariously overcome
their marginalization and see themselves as the 'pivot of
the world.' Kind of biblical eschatology ("the wretched of
the earth inherit the kingdom of heaven")...

This I take it is your characterization of all resistance
to colonialism and imperialism. Evidently you have nothing
but contempt for the wretched of the earth. Is this
ignorance of the world or ultimate narrowmindedness?

567  Sorry, there were no nation-states in those days to
serve as cases for your ceteris paribus and analytically
separate variables, etc. And your notion of units of
analysis under feudalism and early capitalism is a pipe-
dream. And you don't find that kind of shit in Chayanov.

Jim Blaut, Talmudic Scholar