From: Michael Perelman (michael@ECST.CSUCHICO.EDU)
Date: Thu Aug 02 2007 - 20:38:41 EDT
First of all, I appreciate Jurriaan's help. I looked through the English translation of the Collected Works -- the early volumes for the period, 1843-5. I wonder if it has been translated into English. Any suggestions? Jurriaan Bendien wrote: > Prof. Perelman wondered about the source of a Marx quote given by Michio > Morishima and George Catephores in their influential "Value, exploitation > and growth: Marx in Light of Modern Economic Theory" (1978). The problem > quote has Marx saying: > > "Political Economy, in order to give its laws greater constancy and > determinacy, must present truth as accidental and the abstraction as true." > > Intrigued by this, I thought I would investigate - if Prof. Perelman could > "never find" the source for this, something is really going wrong. > > The source turns out to be: Karl Marx [und] Friedrich Engels, Die Heilige > Familie und Schriften von Marx von Anfang 1844 bis anfang 1845. Marx-Engels > Gesamtausgabe, Erste Abteilung Band 3. Berlin: Marx-Engels Verlag Gmbh, > 1932. p. 502 (This first attempt at a Marx-Engels collected works > edited by > Riazanov/Adoratskii was reprinted in 1970, and Morishima/Catephores cited > the reprint). > > With the kind cooperation of the staff at the IISH who trucked out the > Gesamtausgabe, I could establish that specific quote occurs in an 1844 or > 1845 conspectus (notes and excerpts) of David Ricardo's Principles of > Political Economy and Taxation, which Marx probably read for the first time > in his Paris days, as he was beginning to study economics then (Marx used a > 1835 French edition with annotations by Jean Baptiste Say). > > The literal German original of the quote reads as follows: > > "Die Nationaloekonomie, um ihren Gesetzen eine Grossere Konsistenz und > Bestimmtheit zu geben, muss die Wirklichkeit als akzidentell und die > Abstraktion als wirklich unterstellen" > > Morishima & Catephores's English version is thus inaccurate. "Konsistenz" > does not mean constancy, but consistency. "Wirklichkeit" does not mean > truth, but reality. "Unterstellen" does not mean "present" but "assume" or > "suppose". "Akzidentell" in this case is Marx's German rendering of the > French "accidentelle" used in Ricardo's translated text, but what is really > meant is "incidental". > > The translation should thus be as follows: > > "To give its laws a greater consistency and determinacy, Political Economy > must assume the reality as incidental, and the abstraction as real". Not > altogether the same thing as that which Morishima/Catephores claim Marx > said. > > To understand the significance of the quote, you really need the context of > the whole paragraph, which is a comment on the distinction between natural > prices and current prices. In my own translation: > > "On p. 111 Ricardo says, that when he speaks of exchange-value, he always > means the natural price, disregarding the accidents of competition due to > what he calls any momentary or incidental cause. To give its laws a greater > consistency and determinacy, Political Economy must assume the reality as > incidental, and the abstraction as real. Say remarks in this regard in note > 1, p. 111-112 that "the natural price... would appear to be... chimerical. > There are only current prices in political economy." This he proves by > saying that labour, capital and land are not determined by any fixed > rate of > exchange [lit. festen Taxe, probably Marx germanified the French "taux" and > did not mean "tax"], but according to the relationship between the quantity > supplied and the quantity demanded. When Smith assumed the natural price, > there existed at least the question "What role in production-costs do > labour, capital and land have?". That is a question which, leaving aside > private ownership, makes sense; the natural price consists in the > production-costs. Thus e.g. in the community the question might be, will > the > land produce this or that product? Is the business worth the labour and > capital invested? Through the fact that in Political Economy it becomes > only > more of an issue about the current price, matters are not considered > anymore > in relation to their production costs, and production-costs in relation to > people, but as the total production in relation to the haggling over it." > > I did not think to consult the L&W MECW to see if it includes an English > translation of these notes by Marx on Ricardo's Principles, I ran out of > time. > > When you consider the relations of communication involved in all this, it's > remarkable. First, the manuscripts were acquired from the estate and Marx's > notoriously terrible handwriting mixing German and French terms had to be > deciphered in the late 1920s. Then missing words had to be interpolated. > Then the text was published, 88 years later, yet a scholar who read it 133 > years or so later, used it in another context while mistranslating it in > English, and possibly did not adequately reference it. Then another scholar > wonders 163 years later where the quote really came from, or if Marx really > said it. Then through the cooperation of three people plus Internet > facilities maintained by other people, we find the quote again in August > 2007, but we have to retranslate it, so it makes sense in the context it > was > originally stated. If Marx had known all this would happen, he'd be amazed. > > Jurriaan > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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