Re: [xmca] Progress: Reality or Illusion?

["Brecht De Smet" <Brechttie.DeSmet@UGent.be>]

Returning to the original discussion on progress, I'd like to point  
out that George Novack borrowed heavily from Trotsky's concept of  
uneven & combined development (later appropriated by Mandel), which  
was developed, for the first time in detail, in the opening chapter of  
Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution.  
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ch01.htm

While one could argue that the chapter is burdened with the sins of  
eurocentrism (if not in content than at least in tone) Trotsky  
advances an interesting concept of development.

"A backward country assimilates the material and intellectual  
conquests of the advanced countries. But this does not mean that it  
follows them slavishly, reproduces all the stages of their past...
"Capitalism means, however, an overcoming of those conditions. It  
prepares and in a certain sense realises the universality and  
permanence of man?s development...

I think this is an important aspect of the "development of productive  
forces" and "progress": the spatial universalization and thereby  
historical constitution of "mankind" through the very real process of  
the expansion of the world market and the capitalist mode of  
production. Or, in other words, only with the advent of capitalism,  
one could speak of world history and start measuring the relative  
"backwardness" or "progress" of one nation or culture.

Best,

Brecht



--
Brecht De Smet
Doctoral researcher / PhD candidate
MENARG (Middle East and North Africa Research Group)
CTWS (Centre for Third World Studies)
Department of Social & Political Sciences
www.psw.ugent.be/menarg
Ghent University
Universiteitsstraat 8 / 9000 Gent / Belgium
Tel: 003292649741
Mobile: 0032496784370


Citeren "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net>:

> The discussion was around progress, i.e., more or less.
> My original formulation was: "On what basis could one evaluate  
> "human progress"? Evaluating or measuring something presupposes some  
> process of measurement, and thus of comparison."
> Difference is a qualitative comparison and obviously that it ubiquitous,
>
> Andy
>
> Bruce Robinson wrote:
> > Andy,
> >
> > Are you really saying that there are no meaningful qualitative  
> > comparisons to be made between different societies? If so, I'm not  
> > sure how you make sense of historical development which surely  
> > involves more than quantitative changes between different social  
> > systems? I also don't think it's compatible with a CHAT perspective.
> >
> > Bruce
> >
> >
> > Andy Blunden wrote:
> > > Fair point Greg, but if we interpret the question about "progress"  
> > > as "meaningful" in the sense you give it as "preferable" it really  
> > > is meaningless, isn't it? So if I say late capitalism represents  
> > > progress, meaning I prefer to live under late capitalism (so long  
> > > as of course I get to choose which spot I occupy and don't get  
> > > John Rawls' veil of ignorance) what on earth does that mean to me  
> > > or anyone else?
> > >
> > > Andy
> > >
> > > Greg Thompson wrote:
> > > > To turn Andy's original question on its head: what kind of
> > > > *meaningful* comparison can be made "objectively"?
> > > >
> > > > -greg
> > >
> > >
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>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
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>
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