I was just checking the comments, as I do every day, and found a very troubling comment on an old August post by "Theceltiberian" [??] about Sam Bowles and Herb Gintis. He [she, they] says that they have turned very much to the right in recent years. Can that be true? Does anyone know?
I don't know about Bowles, but Gintis is, at least, hard to classify these days. He's certainly not a Marxists now (if he ever was) and not enthusiastic about at least many forms of socialism. Perhaps the most interesting snap-shot of his views comes from his extremely numerous amazon reviews. (They are always interesting, so I check them once a month or so.) See, in particular, his review of Gerald Cohen's _Why Not Socialism?_, or his very long list of his reviews in general, including books on all sorts of topics, exercise equipment, vitamins, and so on. What picture emerges from this isn't clear to me, but it's worth looking at.
ReplyDeleteWow. Am I ever out of touch. I had no idea that Herb identifies himself as a Sociobiologist. Maybe I ought to read some of what they have been publishing lately.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, I am almost eighty. I don't have to do anything I don't want to!
we had Gintis over as a dinner guest about ten years ago when he was on my housemate's committee. He spoke favorably of welfare reform, and if I recall correctly, of Bush's wars against Iraq and Afghanistan.
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ReplyDeleteHerb Gintis was on my dissertation committee; I took several classes with him and Sam. Great guys. Herb and Sam co-authored a book (A Cooperative Species) in 2011 and they "revisited" their Schooling in Capitalist America in 2001 (afirmatively) which can be found in a PFD file here: http://www.umass.edu/preferen/gintis/soced.pdf
ReplyDeleteAnd if you want to see Herb explaining his transition from "revolutionary" to "evolutionary economist" go here: http://anthro.palomar.edu/time/time_5.htm