4 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND THE THEORY OF PRIMITIVE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
This dissertation analyzes and critiques Marxist and non-Marxist economic history, in which primitive societies are treated as devoid of history and development. The dissertation argues that in both Marxist and non-Marxist historical writing, the treatment of primitive societies as lacking an historical dynamic is linked to the use of various kinds of essentialist and teleological discourses. Chapter I is a critical presentation of the forms of writing, such as historical narrative and realism, employed by historians and social scientists who produce these discourses. This chapter begins to present the concepts of an anti-essentialist Marxist discourse, as developed by Althusser, Hindess and Hirst, and Resnick and Wolff, in contradistinction to essentialist and teleological discourses. Chapter I argues that an anti-essentialist Marxism, with the concepts of class and over-determination as its entry point, can produce concepts of primitive history and development. Chapter II continues the presentation of basic concepts, such as necessary and surplus labor, fundamental and subsumed class processes and positions, social formation, overdetermination, transition, and development, that comprise an anti-essentialist Marxist discourse. Chapter III reviews and critiques the Marxist concept of primitive communism frequently used to analyze the socio-economic structure of primitive societies. Chapter III shows how most writing on primitive communism treats primitive communism as a signifier for the absence of history and development, as a discursive representation of the concept of historical origins and/or ends, and as a social scientific type in which primitivism is the central defining characteristic. These treatments, exemplified in the works of Anderson, Godelier, Hindess and Hirst, Leacock, Rey, and others, make problematic the theorization of primitive history and development. By contrast, Marx\u27s treatment of pre-capitalist forms of the commune in the Grundrisse provides the basis for an alternative formulation of primitive communism produced with the concepts primitive communal fundamental and subsumed class processes and non-class processes and overdetermination. Through the use of these concepts, Marx\u27s presentation in the Grundrisse can be read as a demonstration of how an anti-essentialist Marxism theorizes history and socio-economic development in primitive societies
A conceptual framework for research on subjective cognitive decline in preclinical Alzheimer's disease
There is increasing evidence that subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in individuals with unimpaired performance on cognitive tests may represent the first symptomatic manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The research on SCD in early AD, however, is limited by the absence of common standards. The working group of the Subjective Cognitive Decline Initiative (SCD-I) addressed this deficiency by reaching consensus on terminology and on a conceptual framework for research on SCD in AD. In this publication, research criteria for SCD in pre-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are presented. In addition, a list of core features proposed for reporting in SCD studies is provided, which will enable comparability of research across different settings. Finally, a set of features is presented, which in accordance with current knowledge, increases the likelihood of the presence of preclinical AD in individuals with SCD. This list is referred to as SCD plus