From: Riccardo Bellofiore (bellofio@cisi.unito.it)
Date: Thu Oct 10 2002 - 10:17:47 EDT
Jerry, I agree very much with this post of yours r At 7:43 -0400 10-10-2002, gerald_a_levy wrote: >Re Fred's [7779]: > >> If there is no difficulty in the sale of commodities, then the actual >> total surplus-value determined after sale is equal to the total >> surplus-value determined in production, right? In other words, in this >> case, the total surplus-value determined in production is the actual total >> surplus-value, and not a hypothetical total surplus-value proportional to >> the labor-time embodied in surplus goods, as in Riccardo's interpretation. >> I argue that Marx assumed throughout Volume 1 (and indeed generally >> throughout the three volumes) that there is no difficulty in the sale of >> commodities, so that the actual total surplus-value determined after sale >> is equal to the total surplus-value determined in production. > >Well, yes, one can make the *assumption* that the entire commodity >product is sold in which case the magnitude of surplus-value determined in >production will equal the magnitude of the surplus-value that is >actualized. Yet, so long as this is an assumption rather than a result, the >magnitude of *actual* surplus-value can not be taken to be the same as >the magnitude that emerges from production. But, I thought it was your >claim that the given surplus-value was the actual (vs. 'hypothetical') >magnitude of s. Both claims to me do not appear to be logically consistent >_unless_ this assumption is shown to be a result. Yet, nowhere in _Capital_ >that I know of has this emerged as a result rather than a presupposition. > >I guess that returns us to the question (that I asked you a number of years >ago): what is the meaning of "givens" in Marx's theory? If we take the >magnitude of s to be given by assumption we must show later in our analysis >(at a more concrete level of abstraction -- possibly as part of a >"post-Capital" analysis) that either what was presupposed has been >demonstrated or that what was presupposed must be modified. > > >In solidarity. Jerry -- Riccardo Bellofiore Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche Via dei Caniana 2 I-24127 Bergamo, Italy e-mail: bellofio@unibg.it, bellofio@cisi.unito.it direct +39-035-2052545 secretary +39-035 2052501 fax: +39 035 2052549 homepage: http://www.unibg.it/dse/homebellofiore.htm
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