[OPE-L:2097] Re: New quiz!!

rakesh bhandari (djones@uclink.berkeley.edu)
Tue, 7 May 1996 01:25:52 -0700

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>"... the basis of value is the fact that human beings relate to each
>other's labor as equal, and general, and in this form social, labor.
> This is an abstraction, like all human thought, and social relations
> only exist among human beings to the extent that they think, and possess
> this power of abstraction from sensuous individuality and contingency."

Here are my guesses, but I bet Murray E.G. Smith would know the answers.

>(1) Who is/are the author(s) of this statement?

Alfred Sohn-Rethel?Maybe George Thomson.

(2) When was it written?

In the 1950s but not published until the 70s

>(3) What is it from?

Intellectual and Manual Labor.

>(4) Would you characterize the author(s) as (a) subjectivist value
> theorist(s)?
I think the author is concerned with extra-individual forms of social
sythesis, so, no, I would say that he is not a subjective value theorist.

>(5) Would you characterize the author(s) as (an) idealist(s)?
>Materialist(s)? Neither?

Historical materialist.

>(6) Do you agree with the author(s)?

I accept Postone's criticism of Sohn-Rethel.

>FOR EXTRA CREDIT:
>
>According to the same author(s), same passage, "what distinguishes
> human social relations from relations between animals"?

As human social relations change, they require changes in human nature as
well. Animals only have a first nature.