From: Francisco Paulo Cipolla (cipolla@sociais.ufpr.br)
Date: Fri Oct 04 2002 - 17:15:57 EDT
Dear Jerry, my point is that this social relation which according to you is qualitative has within its definition a quantitative aspect, that is, extraction of more labor than it costs. The way you were separating quantitative and qualitative aspects of the theory of surplus value seemed to me to render the qualitative definition not complete. You are saying that each mode of production has specific social relations and the description of these relations are qualitative because it distinguishes between different types of relationships. Is this what you are saying? Paulo gerald_a_levy wrote: > Re Paolo's [7741]: > > > The nature or quality of capital is that of getting more > > than it advances. Therefore the question seems to be how to explain how > the > > enlargement of capital occurs. From this point of view does the > distinction > > qualitative/quantitative make any sense? > > I think it does. > The theory of surplus value, as I asserted to Fred in [7726], concerns > the form that class exploitation takes under capitalism. Thus, surplus > value > (and capital) represent a particular form of social relations. These social > relations are qualitative. But, because value and s come to be expressed > thru the > value-form (and the value-form come to be expressed through the money-form) > value and s therefore come to be represented quantitatively as magnitude. > What's > the problem with that way of conceptualizing the subject? > > The question of _how_ the enlargement of magnitude of surplus value occurs, > i.e. > how surplus value is produced on an enlarged scale, is *qualitative*: thus > in V1, Part 2 we see the discussions of forms of s (absolute and relative). > In > that sense the goal of capitalist production may be quantitative (increased > M) > but that quantity can only be increased (assuming a fully capitalist > economy) > via the exploitation of wage-labor by capitalists (a particular form of > qualitative > social relation). Do you view that process differently? > > In solidarity, Jerry
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