[ show plain text ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Michael Williams" <mwilliam@callnet0800.com>
Subject: RE: [OPE-L:3456] Re: Gil's necessary conditions
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 09:33:31 +0100
A brief comment on what looks like a methdological chasm between Gil and at
least some of his interlocutors
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ope-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu
> [mailto:owner-ope-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu]On Behalf Of Gil Skillman
> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 12:03 AM
> To: ope-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu
> Subject: [OPE-L:3456] Re: Gil's necessary conditions
Gil writes:
> As a result the existence of surplus value is logically
> *possible* even given price-value equivalence. *But the significance of
> capitalist production for capitalist exploitation does not in any way lie
> in the existence of this mere logical *possibility*--capitalists don't
> consciously or unconsciously take direct control of production conditions
> in order to be able to reap surplus value even under price-value
> equivalence.
This is to completely misunderstand the process of abstraction involved in
what I have called Marx's 'even-if' logic. This requires neither that
price-value equivalence exists nor that capitalists take it into account in
their decision making. One can always immunize one's argument against
criticism by hopping about between levels of abstraction.
Michael
____________________
Dr Michael Williams
Economics and Social Sciences
De Montfort University
Milton Keynes
MK7 6HP
UK
tel: +1908 834876
[Home: +23 80768641]
fax: 0870 133 1147
<mailto:mike.williams@dmu.ac.uk>
http://www.mk.dmu.ac.uk/~mwilliam
[This message may be in html, and any attachments may be in MSWord 2000. If
you have difficulty reading either, please let me know.]
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 30 2000 - 00:00:03 EDT