From: Michael Perelman (michael@ECST.CSUCHICO.EDU)
Date: Fri Aug 31 2007 - 11:50:32 EDT
Thank you for your response, Jerry. I see Marx is having two sides. Sometimes, he treats value very quantitatively. Sometimes, he is more sensitive to the qualitative nature of value theory. I have tried to bring attention to the neglect of the qualitative side, but without any success. On Fri, Aug 31, 2007 at 08:23:54AM -0400, glevy@PRATT.EDU wrote: > > The punchline is that the value remaining in capital goods that have > > already gone through a production cycle is indeterminate, especially > > because of changes in reproduction costs of the capital. As a result, > > one cannot know how much value will be transferred to the final product > > from the constant capital because of this indeterminacy. > > > > I discussed this with Andrew when he was a student assistant at RRPE, but > > he was very young at the time and I'm not sure how much of my thinking > > registered with him. > > > Hi Michael: > > You've raised this same issue on numerous occasions on OPE-L, including > when Andrew was on the list. Yet, you haven't gotten too much by way of > responses - if my memory is correct. Is it perhaps because it is a "hot > potato" issue? Is that because there those who are so committed to > creating determinant and solvable equations? > > Part of the disagreement here, I'm sure, is methodological. From a > history of thought perspective, I think that many endeavors which > "truncated Marxism" were connected to a form of "quantitative Marxism" > among economists sometimes called "algebraic Marxism". Obviously this is > not the intellectual tradition you are coming from. > > I think the ontological issue is the extent to which uncertainty and > indeterminacy are necessary consequences and aspects of the value-form. I > think this should be clear from a theoretical perspective, but your > historical and empirical explorations would have confirmed that insight. > It's hard, after all, for someone who is familiar with the history of > capitalism to get too excited about the "transformation problem". History > is always messier than abstract theory. > > In solidarity, Jerry -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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