brad bauerly wrote:
^^^^^^^ CB: Compliments to the two main debaters on this thread for, I don't know what to call it, a cogent and interesting discussion of some important issues.
The wheel and control of fire were invented long before capitalism. I don't know how that cuts here. There were of course many valuable inventions in pre-capitalist times.
I tend to think that capitalist relations of production accelerated the pace of invention compared to previous eras. Marx and Engels say it something like the bourgeoisie are constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production. They also consider that capitalism accelerates the pace of socialization of production and the increase in the division of labor compared with feudalism and slavery.
Might there be a long term accumulation effect, such that later eras "stand on the shoulders" of previous eras ? Though, there is forgetting. We probably don't know all the inventions and science of Egypt. Feudalism was dubbed a "dark age".
There's something of a contradiction in that as the forces, means and instruments of production increase in physical force and power, there are increased forces, means and instruments of war and destruction as a byproduct.
Of course, it would be vulgar physicalism to identify all improvements in the quality of life with inventions that increase potential physical force, power and work ( in the physics sense) or more abundant agricultural production. New qualities things or relations are sometimes the form of , dare I say, progress.