----- Original Message ----- From: "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
you can't understand what Marx is talking about in CAPITAL if you don't understand his jargon and more importantly, his way of approaching the question, which is summarized by his phrase "the law of value." This lack of understanding has led to all sorts of misinterpretations -- with the standard one being that Marx was interested in price theory and followed Ricardo -- and, more interestingly, caused superficial critiques. I don't think it's a matter of taste: the standard framework of mainstream academia is individualistic, where as value theory is inherently oriented toward seeing society as exactly that, a society. ===================== Never said I didn't understand the jargon. Surely there are other ways of examining society, no? Is there one true theory of society under capitalism and doesn't this put the problem of representationalism before us? I'd be the last person to want to pigeonhole KM as a price theorist and I definitely see exploitation in terms of asymmetric power/knowledge formations not only within firms but diffused through the society. I'm certainly not surprised that academics have an individualistic gestalt/bias. I argued plenty with my profs with regards to the limitations of all that c--p. there's also a critique of Kant. If I remember, it's that Kant's theory is so abstract that it's useless, though I'm sure someone knows that stuff better than I. ============== Well skepticism can undo just about any ethical project; it's a short step from negative liberty to liberty as negation of anything we don't like. which Cohen? G.A.? I see nothing wrong with alliances with non-Marxist critiques of liberalism, but I think it's good not to mush them together so that we can preserve some conceptual clarity. Also, I bet that the non-Marxist critiques are based partly on Marx. ===================== Well that's great of course; I'm all for healthy syncretism and pluralism. Anyone on the list for obscurantism? good, but it's important to remember that capitalist society as a whole is also undemocratic and hierarchical. ============== Ya think? :-) >>Value theory starts with the notion that we all live in a society which works as a group (though often poorly coordinated). That basic notion of interdependency is missing in MI.<< >Right, which is why I don't adhere to MI, but I came at the problem from philosophy of science and some of the same issues as Justin--he did physics, I looked at ecology and the ontological status of species--before I really engaged KM.< According to Paul Burkett, Marx was very ecological in his thinking. ================ I'll be checking out PB's book when it's cheap or UW library copy is available. I loved the book he did titled Distributional Conflict And Inflation : Theoretical And Historical Perspectives. The first chapter was a prime example of lucidity. Ian
