>At 11:12 -0700 16-05-2002, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: >> >>It is time for Levy to step down. It's that simple. >> > >No, I think we ALL have to stop and relax. And one of the main >reasons is that almost nobody seems to be able to accept its normal >(and may be wrong) share of criticism without either launching >unpleasant attacks or claiming to having been harassed (I don't >know if this is the exact term, my English is not very good). Since you re-raised the topic, Riccardo, let me respond. I do not feel harrassed by anything Levy said. I am not a TSS'er. I have submitted criticism of the TSS school for being too anti physicalist. I miss the presence of Alejandro in particular because I learned a great deal from him. That is why I was opposed to the gratuituous ad hominem criticism made by Levy of Kliman. This will discourage Alejandro, and Julian and Alan and Massimo and John Ernst and god knows who else from returning. How can any honest person think that the worst fights that Kliman has had--and those would be the ones with Sinha and Skillman--resulted from Kliman's primary research interest being hermeneutics as an end in itself (which has the same relevance to real Marxism as personal gardening) while Sinha and Skillman are primarily interested in understanding and struggling against real capitalism? What Levy posted was a flame, a nuisance post. Please speak to what I am saying. > >This seems particularly true in the case of all the things touching >TSS in general and Andrew Kliman in particular. No phrase >criticising their intellectual practice, even politely, seems to be >acceptable. So, you're right, for a bad reason. No, if Levy had reiterated his criticism of the TSS assumption of v=0, I would not be saying a word, but nodding in assent. If Gary reiterated the epistemological and methodological advantages of assuming long run equilibrium prices in certain analytical contexts, I would not say a word. If someone agreed with my specific criticism of how TSS is too anti physicalist, I would be happy. If someone elaborated Duncan's profound criticism of how TSS has lost sense of the dynamics of the changing MEL in the course of accumulation, I would be thrilled. I am appalled by the kind of criticism Levy recently launched. > >I tkink there are a lot of other more interesting issues to debate I hope that I have given some indication of what those interesting issues are. They are not whether Kliman is no more a real Marxist than someone whose primary research interest is personal gardening! If you think about it, you will see that I am not wrong to be bothered by a moderator making the kind of criticism that Levy recently did. Because he has set back the reassimilation of TSS people (Alejandro in particular), he needs to step down. Rakesh
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