In his speech at Marx's grave, Engels claimed that "Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history". His summary of that "law of development of human history" sounds very similar to Marx own (often criticized as simplistic) summary of his "general conclusion" in the "Preface" to _A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy_. Engels continued: "But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark" (cited from Maximilien Rubel _Marx without myth_, p. 330; published online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/date/index.htm Look under l883 for "Articles on Karl Marx's Death".) Yet, Engels doesn't tell us what the "special law of motion" is. Nor did Marx. The _ONLY_ reference by Marx to a "law of motion of capitalism" was in the "Preface to the First Edition" of Volume One of _Capital_: "it is the ultimate aim of this work to reveal the economic law of motion of modern society" (Penguin ed., p. 92). Yet, Marx did write elsewhere that the discovery of surplus value was one of his most important theoretical contributions. So, what *exactly* is the connection that Engels had in mind between the law of motion and the discovery of surplus value? In other words: a) what is the "special law of motion" ?; and b) how *exactly* does the discovery of surplus value throw light on the "special law of motion"?; and c) why didn't Marx himself tell us what the connection was? [On c): Marx could not reasonably infer that the reader would understand what the "economic law of motion of modern society" is without explicitly stating what that law is. And, not having stated what the law is, he could not have established any connection between the law and the "discovery" of surplus value. Indeed, if we are to take Marx's *own stated goal* for "this work" (it is unclear whether that was a reference to VI, all of _Capital_, or all 6 books in the 6-book-plan), then we MUST conclude that *Marx's goal was not attained* since the economic law of motion of modern society was ultimately *not* revealed. ] Suggested answers to above questions? Comments? In solidarity, Jerry
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