Re: [OPE-L] theoretical tasks

From: Michael Schauerte (mikeschauerte@GMAIL.COM)
Date: Sat Apr 28 2007 - 21:31:45 EDT


Fred,

I think I understand your explanation, thanks. And I do not think it differs
too much from the views of Kuruma, except perhaps for what points are
emphasized.

Kuruma was quite interested in a sentence by Marx in Chapter two (also
invariably mistranslated--except for Hans Ehrbar), where Marx writes about
how "The difficulty lies not in comprehending that money is a commodity, but
in discovering how, why and through what a commodity is money." He viewed
this as a key phrase indicating the theoretical tasks that Marx sets himself
in Sec. 3, Sec. 4 and Ch. 2. That is, in Section 3, the task is looking at
"how a commodity is money," or more specifically the how of
value-expression; Section 4 examines "why" value has to be expressed in a
mediated manner in the first place, which is connected to the nature of
commodity production; and then Ch. 2 on the exchange process discusses
"through what" money emerges, with the answer being the "social act" of the
other commodities. In this sense, as I alluded to in another email, Kuruma
tries to identify the particular theoretical issues Marx is addressing
without concerning himself too much with fitting them into a theoretical or
historical *development, *or seeking out some underlying "motive force."

Mike


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