From: ajit sinha (sinha_a99@YAHOO.COM)
Date: Sat Nov 10 2007 - 17:05:39 EST
--- Jurriaan Bendien <adsl675281@TISCALI.NL> wrote: > But I think, in contrast to Sombart, it would be > more correct to describe Marx's theory of economic > value as a "materialist" theory in the epistemic > sense of the word, i.e. a theory which explains the > ideas about value and their history in terms of the > real, practical relations between people that give > rise to those ideas. ... > In Das Kapital, as Isaac I. Rubin emphasized, Marx > indeed explicitly tries to explain why the > categories of value present themselves they way they > do in human consciousness generally, and in the > consciousness of businessmen and the political > economists in particular. Marx refers specifically > for example to the reifying effects of market > relations, in terms of "commodity fetishism", "the > illusions of competition" which invert the real > concatenation of events, and the "holy trinity" of > value-creation. He notes also that "In bourgeois > societies the economic fictio juris prevails, that > every one, as a buyer, possesses an encyclopedic > knowledge of commodities." (note 5) ________________________ If Marx was not God, and I doubt that he was, then how could his ideas on value scape his own critique? The problem is that Marx is not only presenting a master strategy of critique from the perspective of which nothing is solid and all the ideas of everything melts away in the changing historicity. There are apparently two things that remain solid throughout: One is the ideas Marx has about things (which includes value) and the master strategy itself. But this contradicts the master strategy. Both the master strategy as well as Marx's ideas about value and capitalism etc. are product of a historically situated man's brain. If an Adam Smith or a Ricardo cannot scape their historical limitations then so does Marx. Rubin shows how Marxists turn Marx into God. Cheers, ajit sinha __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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