From: dogangoecmen@aol.com
Date: Fri Apr 04 2008 - 06:49:37 EDT
Jurrian "Well OK then just to finish this dispute (I have to get on with other things):" ??? ?? ??? ??? OK. "Dogan's idea about the "fundamental contradiction between use-value and exchange-value" might have some validity if Marx's Das Kapital was simply a study of the circulation of commodities. But as Marx himself says, it is not simply a study of circulation of commodities, or of simple commodity production, but rather a study of the capitalist mode of production, in which the central contradiction (however much obscured) is between Capital and Labour. Marx's own argument was that authors such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo often confused the characteristics of simple commodity exchange with capitalist commodity exchange, thereby overlooking what is historically specific to capitalism. This difference could be understood only by referring to the specific "social relations of production" defining each of the two. This central contradiction between Capital and Labour is "dialectical" according to Marx, in the precise sense that capital and wage labour depend on each other for their existence, yet they also have conflicting interests which, consequently, have to be mediated continuously, with a whole apparatus of carrots and sticks. Behind the exchange relation between commodities is a social relation between people." ??? ?? ??? ??? Fine. But you do not attack my claim here. This is exactly what I am trying to say when I refer to the separation of labourers from their ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? means of production as the precondition of commodity production. This social relation is also embodied in commodity. In other words, I ??? ??? ??? ??? am referring to the sphere of production. Marx famously said that, historically speaking, capital arrives into the world violently, "dripping with blood and gore from every pore" (the reference is not to menstruation, but warfare). Why? As Rosa Luxemburg explained in her book "The Accumulation of Capital", because the property relations which its existence presupposes do not emerge just naturally out of commodity trade - the possession by some of a source of capital accumulation is predicated on the dispossession of others, which necessarily involves a power conflict between different interests. Hence, the quest for market expansion is inextricably bound up with the overthrow of previous social structures and property rights, through a continuous series of wars which enrich some and impoverish others. But Marx himself did not arrive at such an insight through a "philosophy of dialectics" - he gained that insight through studying historical facts. ??? ?? ?? ?? Historical facts can be studied in many ways as there are so many schools of historians. Marx studies them from a particular ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? philosophical or dialectical point of view. In his writings on the "philosophical tendencies of bureaucratism", Leon Trotsky explained how, after riding to power and privilege over the backs of the workers, the Marxist-Leninist bureaucrats develop a certain fondness and propensity for discoursing about "dialectics".? In this respect,? dialectics offers the advantage that any premise can be flexibly deduced from any other premise to suit one's purpose; any idea can be connected "dialectically" to any other. However, Trotsky recognized this kind of dialectics is totalitarian. Why? Because the bureaucrat defines his vision of the totality in advance, so that his inferiors may be cajoled to conform to it and think accordingly - the whole purpose is to impose that totality on the workers, like it or not. Thus, this "dialectical totality" is merely the philosophical justification and rationalization of bureaucratic power. It is a sad thing when modern Marxists succumb to the same nonsense - and I say this as someone with a lengthy experience of bureaucratic absurdities. ??? ?? ?? ?? Obviously you do not understand much of dialectics. This is Popperian nonsense. Doagn ________________________________________________________________________ Bei AOL gibt's jetzt kostenlos eMail f?r alle. Klicken Sie auf AOL.de um heraus zu finden, was es sonst noch kostenlos bei AOL gibt. _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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