[OPE-L:5245] Re: 'is' capital productive or is that how it 'appears'

[Christopher Arthur <cjarthur@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Jerry
Sorry to be so long picking up this thread.
I do not have the German to hand but I did check it out and it is 'is'. But
this does not settle the matter  because throughout Marrx's work, in this
context he sometimes says 'is' and sometimes 'appears as'. This leaves
three poss.
1. Marx is confused
2. He means them as synonyms
3. the reality is ambiguous and Marx has different aspects in mind at
different times.
 'appears as' is certainly ambiguous: sometimes it means appears as what it
is and sometimes it means appears as something different. Thus 'the
electric discharge appears as lightening' 'Olivier appeared as Othello'.
I believe 2 is the likely explanation but I would give 3 a hearing.
Chris A



>last noted in [5181].
>
>Although Chris  Arthur's article in _Capital &
>Class_  had a quotation (from  the Penguin 1976 edition of Volume 1 which
>included a translation of "Results of the Immediate Process of
>Production") which read:
>
>"Thus capital [is] *productive* (p. 26),
>
>in the source cited (the Penguin ed., p. 1056),
>it was actually:
>
>"Thus capital appears *productive*.
>
> This was not, a typo. In fact, in a footnote (#9, p.
> 36), Chris explains:
>
>     "Note the mistranslation: 'appears' should be
>     'is' as in Marx, 1994a: 459 [_Collected
>      Works_, Volume 34, JL]. (I concede
>      other cases of 'appears' in this translation
>      of *Results...* are genuine.) Marx first arrived
>      at this formula in the 1861-63 manuscript;
>      see Marx 1994a: 128; the whole section
>      (121-29) is very instructive".
>
>So, evidently there is a difference in translation
>between the Penguin/Vintage edition and the
> _CW_, 34, translation.
>
>Does anyone have the original German? If so,
>do you think 'appears' or 'is' is the better
>translation?
>
>In solidarity, Jerry


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