From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2008 - 06:18:27 EDT
> What I am concerned with myself primarily in this context is the dialectics of > cooperation and competition, and how these are reflected in personality structure > and social values. Hi Jurriaan: The 'contradictions' which you identified in a previous post, I think, relate more to a different duality. I.e. under capitalism - due to the market, competition, and the wage relation - individuals are atomized and isolated and individual survival requires certain self-interested activities. Yet, at the same time individuals are connected to each other through sets of social relations and their survival depends on factors which at least appear in some sense beyond their control, i.e. there are social forces at work bigger than themselves. Individualism (and mainstream economic theory) focuses on the former - the realm of choice (even though marginalist theory recognizes through the concept of opportunity cost that scarcity _requires_ choices) and downplays the latter. Some variations of Marxism focus only on the latter and downplay the former. One can see this in terms of how they conceive of wage-labor. I'll address some of your other comments at a later time. In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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