Re: [OPE-L] Marx and philosophy

[GERALD LEVY <gerald_a_levy@xxxxxxx>]

> As you can see, in the original German there is NO MENTION of "inevitable
> results" ("unvermeidliche Resultaten"). Literally, what Marx says is "It is
> a question of these laws themselves, of these tendencies working with iron
> necessity and winning through."

Jurriaan:

Even if you take out the word "inevitable" you still have the expression
"iron necessity".


> If there are "tensions", they are tensions within the capitalist system,
> resulting out of the fact that this system generates all sorts of mutually
> contradictory tendencies which must be constantly mediated in one way or
> another.



There are, in my view, both types of tensions: i.e. tensions which arise
because
of the inherent contradictory character of the real subject matter and
tensions
which occur - for various reasons - within a person's conceptions.



> "Capitalism" and the "capitalist mode of production" are not identical
> expressions. "


That depends on how you define the terms.



> The first volume of Das Kapital is subtitled "The process of production of
> capital", the second one "the process of the circulation of capital", and
> the third one "The process of capitalist production as a whole". Clearly,
> the "whole" in this case is the "whole" of the capitalist mode of
> production, defined, as Marx himself says, as the unity of the production
> process and the circulation process, <...>



The (sub-) whole - the subject of _Capital_ - is capital.  After
examining the subject of capital (as simple unity), the *next question*
to be examined (according to Marx) is a constitutive element of the
CMP -- the major *classes*  associated with the CMP.  The state, and hence
trade and the world market, also form constutive parts of the CMP.


In solidarity, Jerry