There we differ Paul. I believe that I am working more fully within Marx's framework than anyone who starts from the premise that labor is the only source of value. Marx himself was not willing to do this, as I show in my papers. As someone influenced by Hegel, Marx was not afraid to posit that his "mentor" had sometimes failed to properly follow his own logic, as the following excerpt from Marx's notes to his PhD thesis indicates: "It is conceivable that a philosopher should be guilty of this or that inconsistency because of this or that compromise; he may himself be conscious of it. But what he is not conscious of is that in the last analysis this apparent compromise is made possible by the deficiency of his principles or an inadequate grasp of them. So if a philosopher really has compromised it is the job of his followers to use the inner core of his thought to illuminate his own superficial expression of it. In this way, what is a progress in conscience is also a progress in knowledge. This does not involve putting the conscience of the philosopher under suspicion, but rather construing the essential characteristics of his views, giving them a definite form and meaning, and thus at the same time going beyond them." (Karl Marx 1839: notes to his doctoral dissertation, reprinted in McLellan 1971). I find it sad that Marx's alleged followers aren't as willing as Marx himself was to deeply examine the logic of those who inspired him. Steve At 09:37 AM 10/24/2000, you wrote: >This is very important point Alejandro is making. A lot of debates within >and for/against Marx became "frozen" one way or another around the turn of >the twentieth century. I found that with regard to "accumulation of >capital": it became "frozen" by Lenin's interpretation and by the smashing >of Luxemburg's work. Even "anti-Leninists" are often unaware of how the >terms of this discussion were set up a century ago. > >To answer Steve, sorry, but I won't be struggling with your *Journal of >the History of Economic Thought* pieces. I decided a long time ago to >work WITHIN Marxism as I understand its foundations and I consider one of >its foundations that labor power is the source of value production. > >Paul Z. > >*********************************************************************** >Paul Zarembka, editor, RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at >******************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka > > >Alejandro Ramos <aramos@btl.net> said, on 10/24/00: > >>The idea that we may have a theoretical construction which "would render >>reference to labor values superfluous even though Marx's substantive >>claims about the exploitative nature of capitalist profits are affirmed" >>is certainly not new. > >>It was expressed in very clear terms by Tugan Baranowsky 100 years ago, >>and he did provide a variant of such theoretical construction at that >>time. > >>This was framed within an important intellectual current of the epoch in >>which neo-Kantianism had a strong influence on Socialdemocratic >>intellectuals. So, I'm not "charging" you of this. (BTW, this is not a >>court!) Simply, I'm trying to understand the position of your proposed >>thought experiment in the set of ideas. > > Dr. Steve Keen Senior Lecturer Economics & Finance University of Western Sydney Macarthur Building 11 Room 30, Goldsmith Avenue, Campbelltown PO Box 555 Campbelltown NSW 2560 Australia s.keen@uws.edu.au 61 2 4620-3016 Fax 61 2 4626-6683 Home 02 9558-8018 Mobile 0409 716 088 Home Page: http://bus.macarthur.uws.edu.au/steve-keen/
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