[Marxism] The transition to capitalism: is it in our genes?

[Sayan Bhattacharyya]

On 8/7/07, Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> wrote:
>
> The latest explanation for the rise of the west is about as "internal"
> as you can get. As reported in today's NY Times , Gregory Clark, a
> historian at U. of California/Davis, says it is all in our genes!
>
>      Dr. Clark says the middle-class values needed for productivity
> could have been transmitted either culturally or genetically. But in
> some passages, he seems to lean toward evolution as the explanation.

Louis,

Just because we would all feel better if the explanation were not a
genetic one (I know I certainly would), should not mean that we should
reject that explanation _a priori_.

The world, unfortunately, is as it is, not as _we_ would like to be.
So, whether the genetic explanation is correct or not, should be
decided (like everything else) on merits and quality of the
evidence/argument, and on that only. That would be the proper
scientific thing to do.

_A priori_, genetic explanations should not be rejected out of hand.