Reply to Herb Gintis

Abstract

Gintis' criticisms of our "Theory of Transitional Conjunctures" (see page 20) are considered and the very different theoretical and political posi tions held by Gintis and ourselves are clarified. This discussion is especially rele vant since much of Marxism is concerned with political, economic and theoret ical effectivity produced by these different positions. This "Reply" also allows us to elaborate upon some themes of our paper: overdetermined sciences construct ing different knowledges of the world; the need to specify rather than justify the key aspects of a theoretical position; and the importance and theoretical location of the class process within Marxist discourse. Each of these points serve to em phasize the basic disagreements between Gintis and ourselves, disagreements that stem from our different readings and thus understandings of Marxism.