Beyond ethnocentrism : a reconstruction of Marx's concept of science /

This is a very odd book, and ultimately one that will not satisfy many readers. This reviewer is hard put to describe with any precision just what the book is about. There is no discussion of ethnocentrism, nor of any sort of ethnos whatever. Rather, there is a series of chapters providing a superficial outline of traditional Marxist and neo-Marxist understandings of science and epistemology. Following these is a curious exegesis of the work of Bernard Lonergan, an obscure neo-Thomist theologian. Somehow, Lonergan's neo-Thomism is intended to correct an inherent "Westernism" in Marx and to provide a basis for social scientists to synthesize their own perspectives with that oppressed group. This book is well documented, reasonably well written, and not about anything in particular that this reviewer can detect. Not recommended. -S. M. Soiffer, Clark University