Re: [OPE-L] the third nation

[glevy@xxxxxxxxx]

Howard:

I think that the *end* of the paragraph is key for interprerting this
passage.  Marx wroite:

"We will return later to this point, which, WHILE HAVING MORE OF A LOGICAL
THAN AN ECONOMIC CHARACTER, will nevertheless have a GREAT IMPORTANCE IN
THE COURSE OF OUR INQUIRY" (emphasis added, JL).

He continued:

"The same also in algrebra.  For example, a, b, c are numbers as such; in
general; but they are whole numbers as opposed to a/b, b/c, c/b, c/a, b/a
etc. , which later, however, presuppose the former as general elements".

He is making, then, a basic methodological point about the logical *order*
in which the subject matter must be reconstructed in thought.  Before we
can comprehend the inter-relation of capitals on a world level, we must
first grasp capital-in-general. Before we can grasp "the third nation", we
must first grasp capital more generally and abstractly. Book 1 comes
before Book 6.

In solidarity, Jerry