RE: Re: the philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

> Michael Hoover wrote:
>
> >the point is to change it...
> >
> >analytical marxists attempt to explain collective action in
> terms of "rational calculations" of self-interested
> individuals rather than understanding that history is shaped
> by social classes (collective entities in parlance of
> rational choice/public choice/social choice/game theorists)...
> >
> >towards an "orthodox" marxism emphasizing importance of
> exploitation and class struggle and dead-end (nay, silliness)
> of academic attempts to merge marxism with methodological
> individualism associated with liberalism...    michael hoover
> >
> Does one have to be a methodological individualist to believe that
> individuals do make choices, and that theories which assume that they
> act simply as classes (whether in their common class interest or as a
> result of some common false consciousness) are missing something?
> Understanding the reproduction and the change of social structures
> requires an understanding of how structure and individual interact.
>
> Fred

I think Lewontin & Levins said it best, in their DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST: the
heterogeneous parts -- or individuals -- make the whole (the class) and the
whole makes the parts (shaping the character of the individuals and their
consciousness), as part of a dynamic process. Both the whole and the parts
are important, neither can be ignored.
Jim Devine