BHA: causal bearers in the social world

[Hans Ehrbar <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Ruth:

in response to your question: I suspect that both Marx in
Grundrisse and Bhaskar were wrong when they said that
society consists of social relations.  Social relations are
the nervous system of a society, but societies also have
digestive systems.


Why do I say that?  According to Marx, value is real: it is
active and it is a causal power, it has the tendency to
increase its magnitude.  Marx also derives that what value
does from what value is (namely abstract human labor); this is
in keeping with Bhaskar who says in RTS that generative
mechanisms are the ways of acting of things.  Abstract human
labor is not a social relation but it is labor which stands
with all other labor in society in a very specific social
relation.  But under capitalism, abstract human labor itself
is a causal agent, hence society must be more than just
social relations.  Abstract human labor is part of what I
would call the stomach of society.


Here is a different argument coming to a similar conclusion:
Marx says that under capitalism each production process has
a double character: it is a labor process producing specific
use-values, and it is a valorization process producing
value.  I would add that qua labor process the production
process is individual purposeful action.  It has social
prerequisites, but it is done by individuals, not by
society.  Qua valorization process, however, labor is part
of the stomach of society.  Qua valorization process, the
labor process is not controlled by individuals but it is a
social force which acts through individuals: it uses
individual activity to get its own purpose fulfilled.


I haven't worked everything out very neatly, but this is the
direction where I would look for the answer to your questions.

All the best,

Hans G. Ehrbar


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