clerifying concepts

["snedeker" <snedeker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anthony has asked us to use concepts  more
carefully. we seem to him to be talking around in circles. I think that was his
main point.
 
 
I rather like Louis's last formulation. he argues
that different forms of social relations existed within capitalism . who
could deny this as an empirical fact. I also like the way he states his
objection to Wood's arbitrary separation between capitalism proper and trade,
including the slave trade.
 
the concept of the capitalist mode of production
raises problems. this concept is an abstraction, but a useful one. it is not the
same thing as capitalism, a capitalist society, or a capitalist world
system. within capitalism, there are dominant and other modes of production. the
capitalist mode of production can be defined by wage labor and general
commodification, but capitalism can not. if we define capitalism in terms of
wage labor, then forms of slavery become non or precapitalist.
 
I am not sure I understand the dispute between
Yoshie and Mine. it seems to be over models of capitalism. there are also
political questions about the role of slavery in the development of
moderncapitalism.  I have never understood why Brenners model of the
origins of capitalism has been so important to this debate. the central
ideological problem seems to be about the role of eurocentrism within Marxism
and the attempt to overcome this trap.
 
George