[lbo-talk] Last Call for Papers: "Crisis of Capital, Crisis of Theory"]

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Mon Jul 26 07:45:31 PDT 2010


CB: Why would an economic crisis be a reason to question every concept and category?

Here's what I imagine Marx might answer: "if constructing the future and settling everything for all times are not our affair, it is all the more clear what we have to accomplish at present: I am referring to *ruthless criticism *of all that exists, ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense of being just as little afraid of conflict with the powers that be.

I am not in favour of raising any dogmatic banner. On the contrary, we must try to help the dogmatists to clarify their propositions for themselves." ( http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/letters/43_09.htm)

DT

^^^^^^^ CB: Do you have a hypothesis that capitalist crises now occur for different reasons than in the past ?

I just don't think that an economic crisis in capitalism is a reason to question concepts and categories that predict periodic economic crises in capitalism. The occurence of an economic crisis confirms, rather than disconfirms , those concepts and categories.



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