From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Sat Oct 20 2007 - 12:53:53 EDT
Jerry, Insofar as you are fishing for a comment here, I don't know why you bring this up again, since I already mentioned that quote on OPE-L. I think Fred Moseley's approach to TSSI is much better - generally, the different interpretations of the TP have ALL contributed some important new insights into the quantitative and qualitative implications of Marx's argument. If you strip away the sometimes bombastic presentations and sectarian politics from TSSI, there are perfectly valid insights in the interpretation, and at least the supporters pay fairly good attention to what Marx himself had to say about it, rather than view Marx through the lens of another theory. As I have indicated, I personally don't agree with either the TSSI or New Solution etc. approaches, both on textual, logical and empirical grounds, as you will see when I get to write up my piece on the famous "law of value", but this does not prevent me from acknowledging that these interpretations are helpful, in tracing out different implications of Marx's argument, and proving that some readings are simply not credible. More generally, in my studies I found that, 95% of Marxist literature I read, has almost nothing to do with what Marx & Engels really thought, believed and said in their lifetimes, but this does not prevent that literature from offering some valid insights also. So I think that, rather than being completely dismissive of the work of other scholars, you might as well appreciate the perfectly valid points they make, and just note, that there are areas of agreement and areas of diagreement with your own interpretation. I have attacked Andrew Kliman strongly, only because he started to hack into articles by myself and David Laibman in a totally unacceptable way, but that is more a question of integrity. Marxists, although they may be very bright, are often annoying people, that is the way it is. Could one expect otherwise from people who rebel against the status quo? Jurriaan PS - because of other commitments I am taking a break from OPE-L.
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