File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_1996/96-09-26.073, message 38


Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 00:46:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: LH Engelskirchen <lhengels-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: existence claims


 
Andy --
 
I think the point was not more narrow, though I am finding my way
here. 
 
Start with "means of production."  A mule is a mule.  A mule is a
means of production when it is used for the purpose of production. 
This means we need to look at the labor process.  The labor process
is 
 
(I'm just interrupted by my wife who notices that "ontologically
objective" must be redundant.) 
 
Anyway the labor process is the activity of labor disciplined to 
purpose.  So means of production become such because they are
instruments of human (intentional) action.  
 
Take the structural position of a working person to the means of
production.  Under the capitalist mode of production, that
structural position is characterized by absence.  Sooner or later
this becomes necessarily a matter of consciousness.
 
Take the structural position of a working person in the process of
production under the capitalist mode of production.  You do not get
to the process of production without consenting to the exchange of
labor for a wage.
 
My point was not to deny the objectivity of social relations.  They
are intransitive, so we can drop the word objectivity.  But they
are intransitive only to the extent that they exist.  They exist in
the actions of individual agents (where actions can also include
forbearance to act; the key is that the agent could have done
otherwise -- e.g. catching a bus is an action, catching a cold is
not).  But the actions of agents are intentional in the very broad
sense that you did one thing but could have done another (ie the
concept of action itself embodies the concept of intentionality). 
 
So social relations are intransitive only to the extent that they
exist in the actions of individual agents or their products.  My
relation to the means of production is a fundamental presupposition
of my action.  The very existence of "means of production" depends
on someone's action in relation to them.  
 
Howard



   

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