[OPE-L:1492] Re: Re: Marx's ordering


michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@sfu.ca)
Mon, 18 Oct 1999 11:54:05 -0700


        I very much like the questions Jerry has posed and hope we can explore
them. Of course, there are some people who would consider any questions
concerning things that Marx did not actually write "out of bounds". I'll
shortly post a long note commenting on Lapides' book on Marx's wage theory
which was the subject of discussion here last month.

        in solidarity,
         mike

At 10:02 AM 10/16/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>Chris A wrote in [OPE-L:1484]:
>
>> Jerry is right to ask for an integrated theory of th six books.
>
>I'm glad you agree with me with me, now I'm going to put you "on the
>spot":
>
>> In relation to this:
>> 1. marx somewhere referred to Caital/WagedLabour/LandedProperty as "the
>> inner totality" of boureois society. I take it this means that the
>> dialectical connections would be tighter here than in the further
>> developments.
>
> 1. Do you take the position (following Rosdolsky) that the subjects
> of the books on "Landed Property" and "Wage Labour" (Books 2-3 in
> the 6-book-plan) were incorporated into _Capital_ or do you take the
> position (as Mike L does) that the subject matter of Books 2-3 were
> outside the scope of _Capital_ (i.e. Book 1)?
>
>> 2. marxists have often tried to go straight from Vol.1 to the state as if
>> the state was only there to secure the conditions for accumulation.
>
> 2. In the Geert/Mike W book, there is a dialectical relation suggested
> between the categories of "civil society" and "state" that leads to
> the category of "mixed economy". Do you think that the subject of
> "civil society" has to be incorporated into the subject matter of
> "The State" (Book 4 in the 6-book-plan)? Do you agree with the way
> in which this subject was presented in _Value-Form and the State_?
>
>> 3. Those who complain "there is no crisis theory in Capital" should
>> ponder the implications of the fact Marx intended to trat this in book
>> 6.
>
> 3. What do you see as the *order* of topics to be presented in Book 6
> (World Market and Crisis)? What are the aspects of "crisis theory"
> that need to be developed further at a level of abstraction
> associated with Volume 3 of _Capital_ and what are the aspects of
> "crisis theory" that require further development at a level of
> abstraction that is more concrete than that in _Capital_?
>
>In solidarity, Jerry
>

Michael A. Lebowitz
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Office: Phone (604) 291-4669
        Fax (604) 291-5944
Home: Phone (604) 872-0494
        Fax (604) 872-0485
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