Talk:Karl Marx's Theory of History

Forces and relations

The claim that Cohen's interpretation "runs counter to most forms of twentieth century Marxism, which emphasized the importance of the relations of production" is only half true. Cohen does maintain the explanatory primacy of the forces of production, not the relations of production. But he also emphasizes the causal importance of the relations of production. That is the insight made possible by his use of functional explanation: the forces select those production relations that optimize the growth of the forces. Scales (talk) 05:46, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

I am not really interested in debating the correct interpretation of this book. It simply seems to me that if you want to remove properly cited material, there should be a better reason than that you disagree with the material in question. FreeKnowledgeCreator (talk) 07:30, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

My comment above refers to a point made repeatedly by Cohen himself in his book; in fact, it is one of the central claims of the book. But you are correct, in that I should have made clear the justification for removing the sentence at issue. Perhaps sometime the sentence can be reworked in an appropriate way. Scales (talk) 19:01, 14 December 2013 (UTC)