the expression "politicaleconomy"

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> Ted Winslow <winslow@xxxxxxxx> 04/10/00 01:08PM >>>
In Hegel's account of this, "class" is given an essential role.  This is
found in his treatment of the master/slave "relation of production" in the
*Phenomenology of Mind*.  The position of the slave in this relation is to
an important degree positively developmental of "mind" i.e. of human
self-consciousness.  The slave is forced to labour under conditions of
deferred desire.  This, according to Hegel, leads to a kind of
self-consciousness able to move away from pure "immediacy" and  begin to
reflect on desires and the means of satisfying them.  This leads to the
development of "tools" as embodiments of the understanding of nature which
such reflection makes possible.  Tools mediate between desire and the
satisfaction of desire.  Their creation requires a consciousness with a
sense of future.  The development of mind that relations of production make
possible is reflected in the development of "forces of production".

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CB: This is an interesting thesis you put forth, but a question that arises for me is that humans have tools and relations of production before they have class exploitative relations of production ( master/slave relationship). So  the development of the forces of production occurs without a master/slave relationship.  It is SOCIAL labor that is the big human leap.

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The role Marx gives to relations and forces of production (and, as part of
this, the role he gives to "class" in the development of mind) is a
dialectical sublation of Hegel's dialectical sublation of Aristotle.

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CB: Engels and Marx give class struggle  the role of motor of history AFTER the origin of exploiting classes.


CB