What would you name as significant examples of that influence? — frank
Glad we ended up lucky in the end. — Posty McPostface
I don't know at this point whether you agree or not with the points Uber made above. — Bitter Crank
Dual citizen or resident alien? The American culture tends to drive Europeans insane. Have you suffered from that? — frank
Uber had suggested Marx was one of the most influential intellectuals in human history. Human history is in the range of 5000 years during which time the most influential intellectuals were those who devised the solar calendar, initiated irrigation for crops and learned to smelt copper and iron. Is Marx a member of that club? Not yet. Tune in a thousand years from now for a reassessment. — frank
You are probably aware that European culture was driving people insane in the 20th century -- WWI, WWII... Europe's craziness doesn't make anybody else's craziness better, but it can give you some perspective.
Does American culture drive people insane? Fromm thought so (The Sane Society, Erich Fromm). — Bitter Crank
mass sociopathy — Akanthinos
In this economic and political context, Marx feels as fresh and as useful as he ever was. In other words, the fall of the Soviet Union was at best an armistice of 20 or 30 years, much like the Treaty of Versailles. Now the global system is in upheaval again, and these are exactly when Marx is at his best (ie. when describing a system in crisis, which most conventional economic philosophies prefer to ignore). — Uber
Come now. Irrigation wasn't invented by a brilliant intellectual. Neither was smelting and alloying metal, making glass, inventing stirrups, the wheel, the plow, etc. These were collective developments made over time. — Bitter Crank
You need to put Marx's claims about the labour theory of value into context. Yes it is true that at the beginning of Capital Vol 1 he provides an a priori argument for the labour theory of value that is (arguably) unsound. However, in the context in which he was writing, the labour theory of value was not really a point of contention amongst economists - Adam Smith held a version of it after all. What Marx did, from an a priori perspective, was draw that theory to its logical conclusion in explaining how surplus value could be generated. However, these days Marxist economists tend to regard Capital as providing the intellectual framework in which an empirically established labour theory of value has its home, and there is much empirical evidence for the labour theory of value. Marx - given his respect for science - would have been very content with the idea that the labour theory of value was in fact an empirical theory, and not an a priori principle.The labor-theory of value is false
Have you read volume 2 of Capital? Most people don"t bother - they just read the "potboiling" volume 1 and then skip to volume 3, but it is in volume 2 that most of the economic insights and analysis about profit and loss are to be found. Admittedly there is Engel's stamp all over the contents (both volumes 2 and 3 were put together by him on the basis of notes and manuscripts Marx left behind) so we cannot just say that it is all Marx's work, but there is a lot of content in that volume which is very far from being fictional.There isn't a whole lot from Marx that isn't complete fiction.
:up: Thanks for that link.You may be interested to know that many "serious thinkers," like Einstein himself, were socialists who were very much influenced by Marx.
I think Marx's position on the resilience of capitalism is more nuanced than some have assumed, and let's not forget that even in Captial itself he provides models of stable capitalist economic cycles. There is also this quotation I came across in Mezaros's "Beyond Capital" which indicates that Marx was well aware of the threat of capitalism chewing up its opponents and spitting them out again (my italics).He may have incorrectly predicted that capitalism would not be so resilient
That may be true. But maybe this famous quip is more appropriate for artists. Pablo Picasso is widely quoted as having said that “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” — Bitter Crank
The global economy isn't presently in crisis, btw. Doesn't mean it won't be tomorrow.
I totally agree.Even if a maverick comes up with a 100% unique idea of great significance, a community has to respond or... pffft, it disappears. — Bitter Crank
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