[OPE-L:771] Re: Requests from Makoto

glevy@acnet.pratt.edu (glevy@acnet.pratt.edu)
Sat, 30 Dec 1995 07:45:06 -0800

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Makoto wrote [765]:

> But I
> believe that at least a section, The Labour Thory of Value and Socialsm in
> chapter 3 of the book above, and 6.1 Skilled Labour in the Value Thoery in my
> Basic Thoery of Capitalism (1988) are deeply related to the issue of abstract
> labor and the related arguments. I shall be pleased to come in and
> reconsider if any comments are given to those works. Or is there any
> reference that I have neglected? Please mention my name when comments are
> related to my works, so that I do not miss them.
---------------------
I must admit that I haven't read Makoto's socialism book. However, the
_Basic Theory_ book [_The Basic Theory of Capitalism_:Totowa, NJ: Barnes
& Noble Books: 1988] has a number of sections that have relevance to
discussions that we have been having.

Section 6.1 ["Skilled Labour in the Value Theory", pp. 150-168] seems, to
me, to have the most relevance to the discussion among Iwao, Paul C. and
Steve K. on skilled labour. It is unclear to me how that section relates
to the discussion on abstract labour [which is discussed elsewhere on
pages 113-122 and in other places].

Other sections of relevance to topics we have discussed or are
discussing include:

* "Marx's Initial Plan and the Scope of Marx's Plan for Capital" [55-59]
which summarized some debates on Marx's plans; "How to locate and
Complete Capital" [59-62] explaining Uno's perspective; and "The
Tasks of Basic Theory" [65-68].
All of the above relate to the discussion we had on Marx's plans
and how to extend _Capital_. Since we had that discussion a number of
others besides Makoto joined the list who have written on this subject
[Anwar, Mino, Geert] and others as well [e.g. Duncan, Simon,
Dominique and Gerard, Riccardo, Fred, Steve C.]. Since the issue of
"extending Marx" is at the heart of what this list was designed to
discuss, I believe that we should, at some point, re-open that
discussion. If anyone wants to do so, please post.

* For a perspective on the starting pont of _Capital_, capitalism vs.
simple commodity production, see pages 73-78.

* Related to the question of equality and equivalence [and Aristotle],
see pages 78-87.

* For a perspective on the historical-logical method, see pages 102-113.

It is unclear to me, in writing the above, how many list members have
Makoto's _Basic Theory_ book. At some point, we are going to have to
discuss ways to deal with this generic problem some more since past
discussions have highlighted the fact that we are all not familiar with
each other's written work.

If anyone has an article, chapter, or draft that they wish to make
available to the list for reference and discussion, please send an
unencoded copy to me and I will then ask Philip Chao to place that
document in the archives. When I know that this is successful, I will
report back to the list and inform you about which papers are available
on the archives and how to access them.

In OPE-L Solidarity,

Jerry