Blaut: "Marx did not root his theory in rationality and I did not say he
did."
Schell: Nor did I. Rather Marxism is, in many of its variants, which is
what you wrote.
From __TCMOTW__ (p. 95): "Some (not all) Marxist theories are rationality
theories: the defeat of feudalism released creative energies which then led
to technological innovation, etc." [This seems to me to be pretty much the
position taken by Marx-Engels in the __Communist Manifesto__.] To be sure,
Blaut also writes that Marx and Engels felt that "Asians were no less
rational than Europeans" (p. 82) but the same may not be said of many of
those who are Marxists: "Space does not permit me to review the way in
which some other present day historians invoke, and use, the theory of
Western rationality as grounding for their theories of the European miracle.
I should simply note that some of them are marxists and near marxists. ...
Robert Brenner contributes a very different Marxist rationality theory: that
there was no rationality until, quite suddenly, capitalism appeared among
the English yeoman farmers, who promptly became amazingly inventive and
started a technological revolution that has not yet ended." (p. 108)
Moreover, Weber does not deny rationality to traditional civilizations --
merely formal rationality linked to capitalism which, as I pointed out, is
also lacking in Europe until the Protestant Reformation rearranged the
mentality of some (not all) Europeans with regards to the accumulation and
employment of wealth.
William Schell, Jr Voice: (502) 762-6572
Dept of History Fax: (502) 762-6587
Murray State University EMAIL bill.schell@Murraystate.edu
Murray, KY 42071