The Theory of Transitional Conjunctures and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism in Western Europe

This paper has two parts. The first presents what the authors understand as Marx's conceptual framework for analyzing social change, Marx's science. The second seeks to exemplify the analytical power of Marx's science by means of a discussion of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The argu ments concerning the precise specification of Marx's science make extensive use of the work of Louis Althusser as it has evolved over the last twenty years. Argu ing that Marx's science rejects both empiricist and rationalist epistemological foundations and rejects essentialism — both "economist" and "humanist" — the authors contend that such theoretical positions have crucial implications for Marx's theory of social change. They develop these implications in a sketch of Marx's concepts of class relations and social formations. Having elaborated the meaning of the concept of "overdetermination" borrowed from Althusser, the paper's second part seeks to weave together the economic, political and cultur al/ideological determinants of the transition from feudalism to capitalism in a manner strictly consistent with the notion of Marx's science presented in the first part. Beyond exemplifying concretely the power of Marx's science, the second part seeks to move beyond, to resolve, the Marxian debates over the causes — ex ternal vs. internal — of the transition from feudalism to capitalism (Dobb, Sweezy, and recently Hilton, and Brenner).