[OPE-L:6491] RE: Re: N. Sieber on Ricardo and Marx

From: Paul Zarembka (zarembka@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU)
Date: Fri Feb 01 2002 - 07:16:44 EST


mongiovg <mongiovg@stjohns.edu> said, on 01/31/02 [OPE-L:6473]:

>Doesn't Marx, in his Afterward to the Second German Edition of Capital,
>more  or less endorse Sieber's view of the connection between Marx and
>Ricardo?  However slippery Marx's grasp of Russian may have been, he
>understands Sieber  to have posited a continuity between Marx and Ricardo,
>and in referring to  Sieber Marx's tone is unambiguously approving.  I
>have been criticized for  overstating the affinity of Marx and Ricardo,
>and I take the point. But surely  it is a mistake to deny that there was a
>substantial continuity esp. in light  of Marx's own acknowledgment of it?

>Gary

Gary, 

I cannot gainsay our point.  That is, while I am among those who defend the
break between Ricardo and Marx, the Sieber episode is not consistent with
it (David Smith's remark RE Marx on Wagner to read Sieber seems to me to
reinforce the 1873 Afterword).  

On the other hand, there are alternative interpretations such as the one
Jerry offered a year or more ago that Marx wanted to support someone who
supported him (i.e., politics -- to which I objected at the time) or that
Sieber's weaknesses paled next to his achievements as far as Marx was
concerned (which is probably where I am for the time being).  There is also
the fact that Engels' Preface to the 4th Edition is perhaps clearer than
Marx himself on Marx's achievement (see Engels on the history of chemistry
as it relates to Marx) so that Marx may not have been fully aware of the
extent of his own break from the classicals.

I have wanted to get Sieber out in any Western language so that these
problems can see the light of day, as well as helping more clearly
understand the importance of Sieber for Russian marxism (both positive and
negative effects).

Paul

************************************************************************
Paul Zarembka, editor, RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at
********************* http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka



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