Re: [A-List] Notes on Marx's Theory of Productivism in the Grundrisse.

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

As someone who has read only part of Grundrisse, it is helpful to have an
overview. .


At 15/12/02 09:11 +0000, you wrote:
> Notes on Marx's Theory of Productivism in the Grundrisse.





Two thoughts:

How dialectical is it in form? Capital Vol 1, particularly Part 1, is
argued to be very dialectical in form.

and

> the starting-point of Grundrisse is not the Commodity (as in Capital I)
> but Production


Any ideas why the difference. The starting point of Capital in terms of the
commodity and its different determinations, is a hard starting point for
the description of what is a social process. Arguably that gives the
opportunity of highlighting the fetishistic  power of commodities as
embodiments of social relations. Alternatively to start of with the
commodity might be thought to be like starting off with the atom in 19th
century physics, when the atom was thought to be the irreducible unit of
matter.

But these are thoughts about contrasts with Vol 1 of Capital. Are there any
insights about Grundrisse, which illuminate the questions? If Grundrisse
are his notebooks of discovery, do they reveal why he might to take the
reader over a different path in his book of exposition?

Chris Burford