[lbo-talk] quote

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sun May 8 11:02:18 PDT 2005


Autoplectic wrote:
>
> What's independent of each can't be independent of all.

I still don't follow you at all. I'm not even sure how "independent of all" is relevant to the quote from Marx.
> He commits a
> fallacy of composition.

Explain. I don't see how Marx is reasoning from characteristics of parts to the character of the whole.


> Our understanding of the interdependency of
> intentionality and action has come a long way since H&M. The rhetoric
> of 'behind the backs of the producers' is way overblown.

How so? Millions of individuals purchase cars and therefore do not purchase all sorts of other things that they would have otherwise. That non-purchasing of other things leads to some people losing jobs (and perhaps then getting new jobs, squeezing someone else out). Certainly "behind the backs of the producers" (in reference to assembly line workers at Ford) is a pretty good description of that endless process???

Incidentally, the proposition that "The rhetoric of X is overblown" is not determined by examining the text but by an empirical investigation of all those who have responded to the text. :-)

Carrol



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