On Apr 15, 2012, at 2:19 PM, James Heartfield wrote:
> Marx’s critique of capital is indeed moral, but the moral judgment
> he applies is an historically contingent one, not an ahistorical
> standard.
>
> Marx critiques capital from the standpoint of human development.
> Capital, he argues, is developed to such a point that it can only
> carry on as a barrier to human development – it is historically
> redundant.
>
> What Marx rejects is not moral judgement as such, but that
> ahistorical invocation of moral absolutes which are, he argues, only
> the superficial reflections of the exchange process.
This is quite correct. I should add that, just as Marx's "critique" of capitalism is an *internal* critique of capitalism, exposing the self-destructive development of those inherent tendencies that constitute capitalism's very strength, the fact that capitalism increasingly exposes itself as immoral to the point of criminality *judged by its own foundational moral standards* is central to the marxist dialectical critique.
Shane Mage
"L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce qu'on a apporté."
Bardo Thodol