Re Andy's [6536]: Thanks for your even-tempered reply to my questions. I will, in turn, comment briefly on your questions and remarks: > ii) It is nothing to do with 'my reckoning': it is a cast iron > fact that, say, on this list, and in the broader debate, there > are a host of different, *mutually incompatible* interpretations > of value and surplus value. One fruitful question is: why? I think that the differences in interpretation of value have *always* been linked to differences in methodology and philosophy. As for your 'cast iron fact', I think that there are some interpretations of value which are mutually incompatible and others which are broadly similar but different in nuance and emphasis. > Yes, that is part of the reason. Another, is that he left Engels > to do the more philosophical aspects of their joint project, and > Engel's philosophy has been ridiculously cut off from Marx and > deemed nothing to do with Capital. There was, no doubt, a division of intellectual labor between M&E but I don't think that Marx ever agreed that E should be assigned by mutual agreement the 'more philosophical aspects of their joint project'. As for Marxists 'ridiculously' cutting of Engels philosophy from _Capital_, I think that for most of the history of Marxism the tendency has been the *reverse*: i.e. the traditions of both German-Austrian social democracy, Bolshevism, and latter-day 'diamat' in the USSR all emphasized an essential line of *continuity* betweeen M&E. The relative separation of M from E has been a more recent trend. > Why not? Perverse appearances *can* be comprehended. If you > don't believe that, you end up collapsing to scepticism. Yet, there is no reason to believe -- especially given Marx's material conditions -- that he was uniquely situated and talented such that he alone could penetrate those appearances. > But given his own theory and practice I suppose he would > have been disappointed but not particularly surprised. I think he would have been greatly surprised (and disappointed) by a great number of developments since his death. In solidarity, Jerry
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