From: Dogan Goecmen (Dogangoecmen@AOL.COM)
Date: Mon Oct 16 2006 - 03:30:50 EDT
Hi Jerry, this is what I am trying to say. Owen is subject of discussions in socialist circles in the broadest sense of the term, and, you are right, I should have also said in anarchist circles. Among mainstream academics the whole debate centers on the issues of distributive justice. The concept of distributive justice rests on the assumtion of the distinction between mine and thine. (Please see Hume on justice.) Owen saw the limits of the concept of distributive justice practically in his experiments. His experiment in New Lenark was based on this concept. But soon he relised that this is a too narrow concept to grasp the complexity of human relations. When he wanted to change the whole nature of the experiment the shareholder abanden him his plans. Therefore in his later experiments he wanted to estabilish communities resting on the concept of commmon ownership of the means of production. I gree with you entirely that Marx scholars neglected utopian aspect of Marxist thought and that it is absolutely necessary to study utopian thinkers as part of Marx's (and Engels's) critique of political economy. All leftwing scholars agree that capitalism must be critisised. Bu what is the alternative? This is the point. Without some kind of reliable and convincing alternative all critique will fall short. Owen (and other 19th century utopian thinkers) might be a good starting-point here. But I think also Thomas More is essential. It is interesting that many of Marx's terms are already used by More - so for example 'capitalism' to describe the social formation we live in. I thank you very much for the references in this and the last email. In solidarity, Dogan. In einer eMail vom 16.10.2006 02:47:45 Westeuropäische Sommerzeit schreibt glevy@PRATT.EDU: Hi Dogan: You might be surprised by the extent to which contemporary anarchists have discussed Robert Owen, e.g. see Kenneth Rexroth's (1974) chapter on Communalism: <http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/communalism6.htm> I'm not sure how many more recent academic publications by anarchists on Owen there have been (I imagine you're right about that) but outside of the scholarly community there is probably more interest among anarchists about Utopianism in all forms than there is interest among most Marxists about value theory. I think, btw, that having a discussion about Owen on this list would be quite interesting given the divergent theoretical and political beliefs represented in the list membership. In solidarity, Jerry
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