Barkley: Ricardo and I acquired a clear understanding of eavch other's position many months ago on another list. He simply believes that European had some qualties of the Weberian sort (rationality, etc.) before the modern era and this implied that europe was bound to rise first asnd fastest. I deny all of this. I think Weber -- a great thinker for his time -- was dead wrong about these matters, and I posted an essay of mine on Weber explaining why I reject Weber's views and ultimately racist attitude. It became evident that we really would never agree on one of the most fundamental issues in all of history: whether Europeans did or did not have some kind of mental quality lacking in others and explaining the rise of Europe. At a certain point i decided that further crossing of swords with ricardo on any list was not going to get anywhsere and I don;t have the time to go over and over the same issues. In principle your suggestion is good. But I don't really want to get into that. I'm answering his latest post, but that will have to be that. Cheers JIm
