Re: [OPE] free competition

Claus wrote:
"in this case the ideology of 'free competition'
cannot be considered to be idealistic. It may have been an idealization of
actual competition, but not an ungrounded one."

That's how I see it too. The concept of "free competition" grows out of the
real, free (but not perfectly free) competition capitals engage in. Jurriaan
also made some good points on this.
It's important to note that this competition does not disappear in the
period of imperialism, but is constrained, modified and entangled by
monopoly.

Curiously, there's a parallel discussion in philosophy about whether human
beings are free or determined. Many philosophers today argue the latter
case, and would have us believe that "free will" is a myth. But that's only
so if one insists that freedom must be perfect, complete, and absolute, so
that it excludes determination - the either/or approach. Instead it's better
to think of freedom as a practical and concrete reality that goes together
with specific kinds of determination. Freedom in this sense would be our
biologically and historically evolved ability to understand determination
and act accordingly. Clearly this kind of freedom is never going to be
complete - we're never going to completely understand everything about
climate or to fully control it, for example - but nevertheless it's real and
important.

If "free competition" and "free will" were mere ideological myths, it would
be pointless to even discuss them.

I still hope we can move the discussion on and start examining some case
studies, by country and/or by industry.

Paula

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Received on Tue Apr 19 11:06:38 2011