I can only admire the learned, well-spoken Blaut for his characterization of
me as a clown. I guess what I have to ask myself before replying again is:
DO I feel FUNNY today. ["Well Do ya, Punk? Do ya feel funny today?"]. Yeah,
I do. I have fun doing what I do. And I am sad that Jim wanted his to be
the last of our happy and enlightening exchanges. In fact I think we should
take this on the road. I can see it now.
SOON APPEARING at a Professional Association Meeting near you -- the
daring and electrifying, Blaut and Schell!
(I think the billing should be alphabetical and that we might split
honoraria 50/50 if teamed as "featured" speakers).
One of the possible __topics:subtopics__ might be Blaut's concept of a
uniquely European cultural racism which, in the scholarly community, is
linked to/based on Weberian concepts of "rationality".
In Blaut's words (as edited by Blaut): "I argue the [Weber's] biological
racism must have profoundly influenced his theories about world history. I
show that he is a source of a derivative doctrine that I call "cultural
racism" (ling-term superioity of a European civilization over others for
reasons of an absolutely superior "rationality" that is not in inself
explained)." [To see the full development of Blaut's idea, I urge you (as
he has urged others) to read (not to buy) __The Colonizer's Model of the
World__ particularly pp. 94-108.]
At the risk of being accused of distortion, here is a summary of those pages:
Blaut discusses rationality as one of several theories grounded in
culture which are advanced to explain "Europe's [supposed] historical
superiority or priority" by asserting that "Europeans had more rationality,
or higher rationality" as exhibited by their "inventiveness and
innovativeness (or progrssiveness), ussually a capacity for abstract
thought, and often a certain ability to make moral or ethical judgements."
(p. 94) Thus many theories of historical development [Classical Racist,
Weberian, Marxist, modernization theory, the technology theories such as
that of Lynn White, Robert Brenner, Eric L. Jones etc etc] are, says Blaut,
"rationality theories" to a greater or lesser extent. He identifies a
"rationality doctrine" (which emerged alongside the "doctrine of classical
diffusionism" -- the essence of the "colonizer's model of the world, see pp.
11-43) that presumes "the dualistic-developmental conception of human
rationality" whereby the mentality of non-europeans is characterized as
"childlike" or "primitive" or "traditional" while that of europeans is said
to be "adult" or "developed" or "modern" (pp. 95-97). Weber "codified"
these ideas, which were well developed by the end of the 19th century, and
"added something of his own ... so that the doctrine can well be called
Weberian from the present-day perspective." (p. 102)
There is no doubt that Weber's "rationality" is at once insightful and
frustrating. As Stanislav Andreski (a sympathic critic an interpreter of
Weber) remarked: "We must not follow Weber in his rash grading of
civilizations on the scale of rationality, although we can see what he was
getting at: namely, the enlargement of the area in which rational thinking
(especially calculation) is done. (from his introduction to __Max Weber on
Capitalism, Bureaucracy and Religion,__, London, 1983 p. 10)
And after I cook the turkey and bake my pies, I'll finish this post with
a look at Weber's rationality and Blaut's cultural racism.
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