[OPE-L:2759] Re: (3) "Epistemological Break" and Application to Political Economy

From: Fred B. Moseley (fmoseley@mtholyoke.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 07 2000 - 01:02:23 EDT


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Paul, thank you very much for the series of posts on Althusser, which I am
finding very interesting. I certainly did not expect such an extensive
response so soon. Are you on sabbatical or something?

A quick response below and then a response to your (5) in a subsequent
post.

On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, Paul Zarembka wrote:

> Applicating this to Political Economy, Althusser has noted that in
> Marx's early, but unpublished *1844 Manuscripts( classical conceptions are
> unchallenged:
>
> "capital, accumulation, competition, division of labor, wages, profit,
> etc....are concepts of Classical Political Economy, which Marx borrows
> just as as he finds them there, without changing them one iota, without
> adding to them any new concept, and without modifying anything at all of
> their theoretical organization".
>
> ("Elements of Self-Criticism", *Essays in Self-Criticism*, p. 104, fn. 4)
>
> Marx's struggle for new definitions of conceptions only begins the next
> year and I would argue was not even completed with *Capital* (cf.
> "accumulation of capital"). Althusser own reading of political economy is
> mainly contained in
>
> Chapter 3, "The Merits of Classical Economics"
> Chapter 4, "The Errors of Classical Economics: Outline of a Concept of
> Historical Time"
> Chapter 7, "The Object of Political Economy"
> Chapter 8, "Marx's Critique"
> *Reading Capital*
>
> Paul Z.
>

Again, my main question is: what effect did Marx's alleged
"epistemological break" have on his ECONOMIC THEORY IN CAPITAL (and
especially its LOGIC)? Any effect at all?



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