[net.politics.theory] Das Kapital

carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) (10/06/85)

In article <28200136@inmet.UUCP> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:

> Unfortunately, few Marxists read Marx; they don't  suspect,  for
>instance, that the main propositions of the 1st volume of Das Ka-
>pital (on which their whole case is built) are retracted  in  the
>3d volume.

Not really.  One must recall that Vol. III was written first, so if
there were any retractions, it was the other way round.  But most
apparent discrepancies are explained by the fact that Marx is using
different *models* of the capitalist economy in the two volumes.  For
example, in Vol. I he assumes that prices are directly proportional
to labor values, stating that this is only a temporary simplification
that will later be dropped, as it is in Vol. III.  Admittedly Marx
does not make all this clear as a bell.  I strongly recommend a
reading of Vol. I to net.politics.theoreticians, not merely because
it is good for your soul but also because you will enjoy it.  If you
start with Chapter 4 and save Chapter 1 for last, you may find that
it is much more readable than you think.  Chapters 2, 3, 13-22, and
26 of Vol. I are all skippable.

I agree with Jan that Marxist insights can be very useful for the
critique of "actually existing socialism."  Besides Djilas, one might
mention some books by Roy Medvedev, Charles Bettelheim, Leszek
Kolakowski, Rudolf Bahro, Svetozar Stojanovic, and others.
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes