Jonathan Nitzan wrote: > Now, suppose that this moral difference is indeed > the gist of value. It > seems to me that if we accept this view we cannot, > at the same time, use > it to formulate definite �laws of motion� (let alone > more minor > explanations).
I would agree with you. The only way that such "laws of motion" could be formulated would be on the premise that the historical and social basis of value -- or its moral element, its gist -- be held in suspension. That would seem to be sawing off the conceptual limb we're sitting on, wouldn't it? Rather than laws of motion of capital, the formulation would represent an elaborate what-if exercise premised on an acknowledged counter-factual. And no, even if that exercise itself proved intellectually satisfying, it wouldn't help us understand the long term development of capitalization, etc. I've never been inclined to try to apply those hypothetical laws of motion mainly because I saw their articulation as peripheral to and not obviously necessary to the historical and sociological dimensions of Marx's analysis. The laws of motion take us on a detour, a fascinating detour perhaps, an intellectually challenging one certainly, but not one that can be "applied." > For instance, could we use the moral conflict over > production values to > explain the fact that in 1980 the oil companies > controlled 20% of global > net profits and that twenty years later they > controlled only 3%? (etc.) Conversely, I would ask how can we use an understanding of the changes in differential accumulation to explain why working people don't rise up in revolt against such evidently oligarchic and antisocial oscillations of power or to predict when and how they will revolt? Do we know for sure whether that fluctuation in control over profits was the "most important thing" to be concerned about in the past 20 years? Or is it only a residue of our unsystematic, moral attitudes toward the elusive nonentity "value" that makes it seem somehow vaguely alarming? It may come down to a matter of which baby one wishes to throw out with what bathwater -- accepting that we can't keep all the babies if we insist on getting rid of all the bathwater. The Sandwichman ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
