From: <EBERT-AT-newschool.edu> Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 13:33:30 EDT Subject: Help! Help! My system is being inundated with marxist stuff, unfortunately not only do I not have enough time to go through it (not realizing when I signedup the extent of, and apparant fruitfulness of marxist stuff today!), but also at this point my interest in marxism pertains specifically to philosophical questions raised by the man himself - vis-a-vis the scoundral Jon Elster, the analytical marxist. In brief, my paper is a critique of neoclassical marcroeconomic methodology used in the construction of development policy for UDC. I address the shortcomings of utilitarianism and suggest shifting the debate surrounding the market\nonmarket dichotomy (exchange/production vs consumption/nonproduction) to the nature of work itself as an indicator of well-being (this is a very simple explanation). Ultimately the objective is to suggest shifting away from the sanctity of the price mechanism as defining appropriate "action" to the nature of the work itself (somewhere the conection to capabilities (Sen) must also be made) as an indicator of appropriate "action". In short, I find some potential in Elster's work on "self-realization" and will explore the possibility of applying his standard (which he applies only to the market sector [I'm not exactly clear why he doesn't discuss in the context of the nonmarket especially the household - but considering the sanctity of the price mechanism in all economic theory it doesn't surprise me] to household labor. Since I haven't actually written the paper I'm going to sign off in a couple of days for a month or so. However, until then if anyone thinks I'm complete nuts or whatever! write! Sources I'm using: Elster, Jon Sen, Amartya Ellerman, David Marx, K (though I admit I haven't read Vol. I, II, III, theories of Surplus Value, Grundrisse, etc. five thousand times! excuse me) but apparantly neither did Althusser? Signing off Laura Ebert-AT-newschool.edu ------------------
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