>
> From: Ted Winslow
>
>
> The problem is that any attempt – such as Marx’s attempt to deduce
> immiserization from long run changes in the organic composition of
> capital and the rate of profit – to deduce long run consequences from
> fixed axioms ignores the feature of reality that makes Marx’s
> materialism “historical,” namely that reality is a system of “internal
> relations.” This is the idea that the essences of things are the
> outcome of their relations and so change with changes in their
> relations.
>
> This limits the applicability of deductive reasoning, the limits
> becoming greater the less stable the relevant relations and the farther
> into the future the consequences to be deduced.
-clip-
^^^^^ CB:
What do you do with the fact that there is increased immiseration in the human population as whole ? There are more poor people under capitalism now than in Marx's day. So, that prediction is accurate in this "long run" ( what 150 years ?)
Also, the only assumptions Marx makes about the changes in technological development in the long run , that I can see, are that capitalism will use them to reduce the number of humans it takes to produce products. That's holding true in the "long run" too. So, what ever the internal relations are doing, Marx didn't miss the point on that either.
Also, how could you fail to recognize that Marx was a dialectician, not a deductive reasoner ? His whole approach was to place change at the center of his thought.
Interesting discussion, but doesn't "internal relations" theory derive from Marxist dialectics , according to whatshisname , the one who invented that game with Rockefeller and Marx's pictures on the front ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20031102/6648e730/attachment.htm>