Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 05:29:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gerald Levy <glevy-AT-pratt.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Marx, Lenin & economic theory


Hugh H wrote:

> But Marx's
> whole project was devoted to what Rakesh puts so clearly -- showing the
> absurdity of capitalist categories of "economics" (price, profit, rent,
> wages, interest) as instruments of understanding or control, of achieving
> some kind of balance or equilibrium. In other words, it was and is a
> "critique of economic theory".

Yes, it was and is critique. But, it was also something more.

The interpretation of Marx's "whole project" as critique does not fit very
well with his 6-book-plan -- of which there is no evidence that he
abandoned.

The above interpretation of Marx's project as only critique also
contradicts his stated aim (in the 1867 "Preface to the First Edition"):

"...it is the ultimate aim of this work to reveal the economic law of
motion of modern society....".

Note that he did *not* say above that it is the ultimate aim to reveal and
critique bourgeois economic categories. I would say, rather, that he
thought that this could be revealed in large part through the vehicle of
critique. But, in writing _Capital_, it should be remembered that Marx had
more than one fish to fry.

Jerry 



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