[OPE-L:2136] Re: Science and Ideology

Massimo De Angelis (massimo@uel.ac.uk)
Fri, 10 May 1996 06:16:38 -0700

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> Alan

> >(2)Please also define 'portrays reality'.
> >
> Paul
> ---
> In this context, I mean a theory of prices and profits in a capitalist
> economy that can be put to statistical tests against real data from
> such economies, and come up with good predictions.

Massimo

I mean a theory of prices and profits (but also of many other things)
that enables us to understand a) the roots of capital despotism
upon us; b) the forms of capital's strategies used to perpetrate this
despotism. All this as the basis for searching for ways that, in
historical given times, are relevant for a) getting rid of capital's
despotism; b) constitute new patterns of social relations beyond
capitalism and towards a "human" society.

The only relevant "test" of this enterpise is not a "statistical test"
but a "political/historical/philosophical test". May I repeat
what I have said other times, that is, it seems to me that our projects
are substancially different. What do you all thing about this?

Massimo