Re: [OPE] Just published: THE NATIONAL QUESTION AND THE QUESTION O F CRISIS (RPE, Vol. 26)

From: Dave Zachariah <davez@kth.se>
Date: Mon Nov 29 2010 - 17:12:38 EST

On 2010-11-29 22:48, Paul Zarembka wrote:
> All my professional life I have tried to understand mathematical
> results, not simply report a derivation. Understanding implies being
> able to explain in normal language the mechanism that drives a result.
> That is the ONLY thing I am attempting now, with my questions to Paul C.

OK, in my view the mechanism could be understood in relatively simple
terms too. The result follows from Marx's idea of a falling ratio of
'living to dead labour'. If capitalists unproductively consume a large
share of their surplus value, less dead labour will accumulate. Is this
clearer?

(On a methodological note, 'understanding' does not necessarily imply
explaining things in a 'normal language'. Cf. results from quantum
mechanics, in which the derived results were first understood in
mathematical formalism, but had very weird consequences in the 'normal
language' of the time.)

//Dave Z
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Received on Mon Nov 29 17:14:05 2010

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