Professor Gottfried’s response to my article on power is useful in that it clarifies his position and confirms the philosophical differences between us. I am glad to know that he does not think that I have distorted his position. What is more disappointing is that I seem not to have gotten the gist of my own argument about power across, though a certain evasiveness on Professor Gottfried’s part makes me wonder if he has grasped more of it than he lets on. His text appears to me not really responsive to my central thesis. It also simplifies or distorts my meaning.
Professor Gottfried presents me as criticizing him for “a preoccupation with power-relations” (PIC, 96). This is not the case. My own article is called “Dimensions of Power” and deals with power-relations. What I argue is that Professor Gottfried and others who think along similar lines should be more attentive to power-relations—but as they are in real life rather than as they appear in reductionistic theory…
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