[ show plain text ]
I've checked out the Carchedi & Haan piece, section 6
----- Original Message -----
From: Gerald Levy <glevy@pratt.edu>
To: <ope-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 3:14 PM
Subject: [OPE-L:2183] Re: value-form theories
>
> Isn't this basically the same criticism as that made by Carchedi & de Haan
> in _Capital & Class_ (57; Autumn 1995) in Section 6 of their article,
> "Value as a Metaphor?" (pp. 100-102)? Yet, as I recall, didn't
> you challenge Mino on just this point on OPE-L (in November or December,
> '95; I don't recall the post #) in which you said that you didn't think
> that this section of their article was "fair" to VFT?
>
And it does indeed not meet the challenge of VFT: the determination of
exchange ratios and prices is systemic. Then labour is indeed allocated (not
'distributed') to different activities, as grounded in Markets, iaw the
dictates of the imperatives of the value-form=> vaorisation => capital
accumulation. In this process, specific labours a really abstracted into
abstract labour.
VFT does indeed contain no specific theory of relative prices, and may
therefore subsume some variant of orthodox price theory (neo-classical or
post-Keynesian) set within the context of a value-form system. NB that the
ideological force of these theories lies specifically in their systematic
partiality, rather than in there empirical inadequacy for the operation of
markets considered (ideologically) in relative isolation. In particular, in
their neglect or rejection of the source of value-added in current labour.
None of this makes VFT a 'metaphor' to any greater extent than any
conceptual structure (i.e. words are not literally the same thing as that
which they denote).
This section gives the appearance of a last minute add-on, quite
understandable perhaps in response to a referee or editor's comments.
Michael
____________________
Dr Michael Williams
Economics and Social Sciences
De Montfort University
Milton Keynes
UK
fax: 0870 133 1147
http://www.mk.dmu.ac.uk/~mwilliam
[This message may be in html, and any attachments may be in MSWord 97. If
you have difficulty reading either, please let me know.]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 31 2000 - 07:00:07 EST