[lbo-talk] Marx's Method, Relevance for his Value Theory

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 16 06:14:57 PDT 2010


Angelus Novus

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On the first point, Marx in the Grundrisse (Carrol's favorite passage):

Bourgeois society is the most developed and the most complex historic organization of production.

^^^^^ CB: Capitalism is an historic mode of production. Marx is famous for historicizing capitalism, demonstrating that capitalist relations of production are not universal in human history. Capitalism has not always been and will not always be. Another world is possible.

^^^^^

The categories which express its relations, the comprehension of its structure, thereby also allows insights into the structure and the relations of production of all the vanished social formations out of whose ruins and elements it built itself up, whose partly still unconquered remnants are carried along within it, whose mere nuances have developed explicit significance within it, etc.

^^^^^ CB: Angelus is no doubt using reverse psychology. He really thinks Marx is expounding historically evolved categories , later ones like capitalism developing out of earlier precursor commodity production forms, but he argues against it rudely to get his students to vigoruously defend the position he favors "against" him. He's using a negative dialectical pedagogy on us no doubt. Why else would he aduce quotes from Marx that demonstrate the contrary of what Novus says in this debate.

"Vanished social formations" is a historical , not logical reference.

^^^^^^^

Human anatomy contains a key to the anatomy of the ape.

^^^^^ CB: There is only one science; the science of history. Marx knew enough natural history to think that the relationship between human types and ape types is the latter type is a historical, not just logical, precursor to the former type.

^^^^^

The intimations of higher development among the subordinate animal species, however, can be understood only after the higher development is already known. The bourgeois economy thus supplies the key to the ancient, etc. But not at all in the manner of those economists who smudge over all historical differences and see bourgeois relations in all forms of society. One can understand tribute, tithe, etc., if one is acquainted with ground rent



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