On Sat, 7 May 2005, Autoplectic wrote:
> On 5/7/05, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>> Marx, Grundrisse, p. 161, on the expanding scope of capitalist
>> markets and the urge for acquiring information that it produces:
>>
>>> the beauty and greatness of it: this spontaneous interconnection,
>>> this material and mental metabolism which is independent of the
>>> knowing and willing of individuals, and which presupposes their
>>> reciprocal independence and indifference. And, certainly, this
>>> objective connection is preferable to the lack of any connection, or
>>> to a merely local connection resting on blood ties, or on primeval,
>>> natural or master-servant relations.
>
> ----------------------
>
> The first sentence has serious problems re the use of 'independence'.........
>
Marx is arguing that capitalist social relations presuppose independent agents; what's the problem here? I guess we've been through this before on the list (the agency/individualism/independence stuff), but this seems like a pretty basic Marxist point.
Miles