On 7/19/11 8:51 PM, Lakshmi Rhone wrote: > Love to hear more about Meek, but I think Joan Robinson was saying that > his students would not have been taught the difference between C as a > stock and as a flow, and would not have been trained on how to work out > models of interdepartmental equilibrium from scratch. So he must have > been a terrible teacher. >
I like Meek. --- Where did the idea of "stages" come from? Most of us assume that Marx and Engels invented the concept and that works such as the "Communist Manifesto" and "Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State" introduced it to a Europe that had never heard of such a thing. In reality, Marx and Engels, as they themselves admitted, had merely adapted the notion of stages from bourgeois social scientists. The "4 stage" theory of history was widely accepted in 17th and 18th century Europe. For the whole story, I recommend Ronald L. Meek's "Social Science and the Ignoble Savage" (Cambidge, 1976). Meek might be known to many of you for his book on the labor theory of value published by Monthly Review press. "Social Science and the Ignoble Savage" is essential reading for those who are trying to come to grips with the Eurocentric character of much of Marx and Engels' writings. Meek makes a very important point. Central to the writings of 17th and 18th century social science was a belief that American Indians were the prime example of the 'first' or 'earliest' stage of human social development. Unlike those like Rousseau who made the case for a 'noble savage,' these historians and philosophers thought that American Indians represented the worst humanity had to offer. Since American Indian society was on the lowest stage of human development, its disappearance would represent progress. John Locke was one such thinker and his justifications for British colonialism are well-known. full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/economics/dependency_theory.htm _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
