From: Christopher Arthur (arthurcj@WAITROSE.COM)
Date: Fri Aug 03 2007 - 11:04:01 EDT
It must be in new MEGA, probably vol IV.4 but I know of no translation Chris A > From: Michael Perelman <michael@ECST.CSUCHICO.EDU> > Reply-To: OPE-L <OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU> > Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 17:38:41 -0700 > To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU > Subject: Re: [OPE-L] The difficulties of translating Marx: report on an > excursus in Marxology > > 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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