Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| History: History is the study of the past, especially the people, events, and trends that have shaped our world. This is about the part of the past that was determined and experienced by consciousness. See also Historiography, Culture._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Karl Marx on History - Dictionary of Arguments
Höffe I 368 History/Marx/Höffe: [Marx](1) begins with the analysis of commodity and money as the factual preconditions and formal elements. He concedes to capital the world-historical task of developing all productive forces of labor. On the other hand, however, it prevents what is indispensable for a truly humane economy: that work or the worker becomes the subject of social processes. Determinism: Freely borrowing from Hegel's philosophy of history, Marx thinks deterministically. For in his view, the allegedly undeniable "impoverishment of the masses" follows a mechanism that inevitably leads to the self-absorption of capital. In his view, there is a growing concentration of capital, in the course of which more and more owners of capital are expropriated, which should have an obvious consequence: As misery grows, so does the indignation of an ever larger organized labor force. >History/Hegel, >World history/Hegel, >Weltgeist/Hegel. 1. K. Marx Das Kapital Vol. I 1867, Vol. II & II 1885 (= MEW 23-25) - - - Gaus I 80 History/Marx/Levine, Andrew: Hegel’s philosophy of history was, of course, the immediate inspiration for Marx’s attempt to make sense of history as such. But Marx broke ranks with Hegel and the entire tradition that his work culminated in by rejecting teleology and, with it, the project of discovering what historical events mean. Marx retained Hegel’s sense of history’s intelligibility; he sought to provide an account of real historical structures and of the direction of historical change. >History/Hegel. MarxVsHegel: But, for Marx, history is as meaningless as nature is. Like nature too, it has properties that are independent of investigators’ interests and that are in principle capable of being known. The philosophers of history, Hegel especially, had grasped aspects of real history, but through the distorting lens of their own teleological convictions. Marx set them right, without succumbing to the atheoreticism of contemporary historians. History/MarxismVsMarx: Western Marxisms, for all their differences, were of one mind in distancing themselves from Marx’s theory of history. The historical materialist orthodoxy of the Second and Third Internationals was, in the eyes of Western Marxists, too fatalistic to pass muster. It failed to accord human agency its due. Its commitment to historical inevitability even seemed to render the very idea of politics otiose. If the end is already given, one can perhaps hasten its coming, but nothing can fundamentally change the ultimate outcome. This, it seemed to them, was a formula for quiescence, for passively awaiting the revolution. But the historical materialism Western Marxists faulted was not exactly the historical materialism Cohen defended. >History/Cohen. Levine, Andrew 2004. A future for Marxism?“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications. - - - Rothbard II 417 History/economy/Marx/Rothbard: (…) Marx was not particularly interested in explanatory laws for the workings of the capitalist system. He was interested in pressing on to what he called the 'laws of motion' (a revealingly mechanistic term!) of the capitalist system, that is, in its inevitable march towards the victory of revolutionary communism, a march that would proceed 'with the inexorability of the laws of nature'. How and where, then, was capitalism bound to move? One crucial aspect of the inevitable doom of capitalism is the inescapable law of the falling rate of profit. >Rate of Profit/Marx. Rothbard II 419 Accumulation/Marx: Whichever course the Marxists take, it is crucial for them to salvage the continuing accumulation of capital, since it is through such accumulation that increased productivity and particularly technological innovations take place and are instituted in the economy. And we must remember that it is through technological innovation that capitalists dig their own grave, for the capitalist system and capitalist relations become the fetters that block technological development. Some technological method that capitalism cannot encompass, which Marx late in life thought would be electricity, would provide the spark, the necessary and suffcient base for the inevitable overthrow of capitalism and the seizing power by the 'final' historical class, the proletariat. To Marx, two consequences followed necessarily from the alleged tendency to the accumulation of capital and the advance oftechnology. The first is the 'concentration of capital', by which Marx meant the inexorable tendency of each firm to grow ever larger in size, for the scale of production to enlarge.(1) Certainly, there is a great amount of expansion of scale ofplant and firm in the modern world. RothbardVsMarx: On the other hand, the law is scarcely apodictic. Why may not the accumulation of capital be reflected in a growth in the number of firms, rather than merely in increasing the size of each? 1. Thus, Marx wrote, in Volume I of Capital, that 'It is a law, springing from the technical character of manufacture, that the minimum amount of capital which the capitalist must possess has to go on increasing', and 'the development of capitalist production makes it necessary constantly to increase the amount of capital laid out in a given industrial undertaking'. Cf. C David Conway, A Farewell to Marx: An Outline and Appraisal of His Theories (Harmondsworth, Mddx: Penguin Books, 198 7), pp. 126-7._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Marx I Karl Marx Das Kapital, Kritik der politische Ökonomie Berlin 1957 Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016 Gaus I Gerald F. Gaus Chandran Kukathas Handbook of Political Theory London 2004 Rothbard II Murray N. Rothbard Classical Economics. An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham 1995 Rothbard III Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy and State with Power and Market. Study Edition Auburn, Alabama 1962, 1970, 2009 Rothbard IV Murray N. Rothbard The Essential von Mises Auburn, Alabama 1988 Rothbard V Murray N. Rothbard Power and Market: Government and the Economy Kansas City 1977 |
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