New Dialectics and Political Economy

238 Pages·2003·0.712 MB·English

by  Robert Albritton, John Simoulidis (eds.)

New Dialectics and
Political Economy
Edited by
Robert Albritton and John Simoulidis
New Dialectics and Political Economy
Also by Robert Albritton
A JAPANESE APPROACH TO POLITICAL ECONOMY (with Thomas T. Sekine)
A JAPANESE APPROACH TO STAGES OF CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT
A JAPANESE RECONSTRUCTION OF MARXIST THEORY
DIALECTICS AND DECONSTRUCTION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
PHASES OF CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT (with Makoto Itoh, Richard Westra and
Alan Zuege)
New Dialectics and
Political Economy
Edited by
Robert Albritton
Professor of Political Science
York University
Toronto, Canada
and
John Simoulidis
Department of Political Science
York University
Toronto, Canada
Selection, editorial matter and Chapter 4 © Robert Albritton 2003
Chapter 5 © Moishe Postone 2003
Chapters 1–3, 6–11 © Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-99933-2
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Notes on the Contributors vii
Introduction: The Place of Dialectics in Marxian Political
Economy
Robert Albritton xi
1 Beyond The False Infinity of Capital: Dialectics and Self-
Mediation in Marx’s Theory of Freedom
David McNally 1
2 Systematic and Historical Dialectics: Towards a Marxian
Theory of Globalization
Tony Smith 24
3 On ‘Becoming Necessary’ in an Organic Systematic Dialectic:
The Case of Creeping Inflation
Geert Reuten 42
4 Superseding Lukács: A Contribution to the Theory of
Subjectivity
Robert Albritton 60
5 Lukács and the Dialectical Critique of Capitalism
Moishe Postone 78
6 From Hegel to Marx to the Dialectic of Capital
John R. Bell 101
7 The Dialectic, or Logic that Coincides with Economics
Thomas T. Sekine 120
8 The Problem of Use-Value for a Dialectic of Capital
Christopher J. Arthur 131
9 Things Fall Apart: Historical and Systematic Dialectics and
the Critique of Political Economy
Patrick Murray 150
10 Marx’s Dialectical Method is More Than a Mode of Exposition:
A Critique of Systematic Dialectics
Bertell Ollman 173
11 The Specificity of Dialectical Reason
Stefanos Kourkoulakos 185
Index 205
v
Acknowledgements
The chapters in this volume were initially presented as papers at a work-
shop at York University, Toronto, Canada in March 2001. This workshop
was made possible by the financial contributions of the Department of
Political Science, the Academic Vice President, the Dean of Graduate
Studies, the Dean of Arts, the Department of Sociology, the Social Science
Division, the Social and Political Thought Program and The York
University Graduate Students Association. John Simoulidis did an out-
standing job of organizing the conference, and also did most of the editing
of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Josh Dumont for helping with
the editing. Most of all, I would like to thank the contributors to this
important book on dialectics and political economy.
ROBERTALBRITTON
vi
Notes on the Contributors
Robert Albritton is Professor of Political Science at York University,
Toronto, Canada. Recent publications include A Japanese Approach to Stages
of Capitalist Development (London: Macmillan, 1991); Dialectics and
Deconstruction in Political Economy (London: Macmillan, 1999); and ‘The
Unique Ontology of Capital’, in L. Nowak and R. Panasiuk (eds), Marx’s
Theories Today (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998); and ed. with M. Itoh, R. Westra
and A. Zuege, Phases of Capitalist Development: Booms, Crises, and
Globalizations(London/New York: Palgrave, 2001).
Christopher J. Arthur taught philosophy for twenty-five years at the
University of Sussex, England. Some of his recent publications include ‘The
Spectral Ontology of Capital’, in A. Brown, S. Fleetwood and J. M. Roberts
(eds), Critical Realism and Marxism(New York: Routledge, 2002);‘Capital-in-
General and Marx’s Capital’ and ‘Capital, Many Capitals and Competition’, in
G. Reuten and M. Campbell (eds), The Culmination of Capital (London/
New York: Palgrave, 2002); ‘From the Critique of Hegel to the Critique of
Capital’, in T. Burns and I. Fraser, eds., The Hegel–Marx Connection(New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 2000); and ed. with G. Reuten, The Circulation of Capital:
Essays on Volume Two of Marx’s ‘Capital’ (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1998).
John R. Bell teaches in the School of Liberal Studies at Seneca College in
Toronto. He is author of ‘Dialectics and Economic Theory’ in R. Albritton
and T. Sekine (eds), A Japanese Approach to Political Economy (London:
Macmillan, 1995); and with T. Sekine, ‘The Disintegraton of Capitalism:
A Phase of Ex-Capitalist Transition’, in R. Albritton, M. Itoh, R. Westra, and
A. Zuege (eds), Phases of Capitalist Development: Booms, Crises and
Globalizations(London/New York: Palgrave, 2001).
Stefanos Kourkoulakos has studied philosophy of science and political
economy at York University, Toronto. He is currently researching the argu-
ment structure of dialectical logic.
David McNallyis Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto,
Canada. His publications include: Political Economy and the Rise of
Capitallism: A Reinterpretation (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1988); Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist
Critique (New York: Verso, 1993); Bodies of Meaning: Studies on Language,
Labour and Liberation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001);
and Another World is Posibble(Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 2002).
vii
viii Notes on the Contributors
Patrick Murrayis Professor of Philosophy at Creighton University, Omaha,
Nebraska. His publications include Marx’s Theory of Scientific Knowledge
(Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1988);ed., Reflections on
Commercial Life (New York: Routledge, 1997); and ‘Marx’s Truly Social
Labour Theory of Value’, in Historical Materialism, nos 6 and 7 (Summer
2000 and Winter 2000).
Bertell Ollmanis Professor of Politics at New York University. His publica-
tions include: Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971);Social and Sexual Revolution
(Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1978); Dialectical Investigations (New York:
Routledge, 1993);How to Take an Exam… And Remake the World(Montreal:
Black Rose Books, 2001).
Moishe Postone is Associate Professor of History at the University of
Chicago. Recent publications include: Time, Labour and Social Domination: A
Reinterpretation of Marx’s Critical Theory(Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993); ed. with E. Santner, Catastrophe and Meaning: Debates on the
Holocaust and the Twentieth Century(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
in press); ‘Contemporary Historical Transformations: Beyond Postindustrial
and Neo-Marxist Theories’, in Current Perspectives in Social Theory, vol. 19,
1999; ‘Deconstruction as Social Critique: Derrida on Marx and the New
World Order’, History and Theory, vol. 37, no. 3, 1998; and ‘Rethinking
Marx in a Postmarxist World’, in C. Camic (ed.), Reclaiming the Sociological
Classics(Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell, 1988).
Geert Reuten is Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of
Economics of the University of Amsterdam. His publications include,
with M. Williams, Value-Form and the State: The Tendencies of
Accumulation and the Determination of Economic Policy in Capitalist Society
(London: Routledge, 1989); with C. J. Arthur (eds), The Circulation of
Capital: Essays on Volume II of Marx’s ‘Capital’ (New York: St Martin’s
Press, 1998); and with M. Campbell (eds), The Culmination of Capital:
Essays on Volume III of Marx’s ‘Capital’ (London/New York: Palgrave,
2002).
Thomas T. Sekine was Professor of Economics and Social and Political
Thought at York University, Toronto, Canada from 1968 to 1994. He is
currently teaching at the School of Commerce, Aichi-Gakuin University,
Japan. Recent publications include An Outline of the Dialectic of Capital, 2
vols (London: Macmillan, 1997); and A Japanese Approach to Political
Economy: Unoist Variations (London: Macmillan, 1995), co-edited with
Robert Albritton.
Notes on the Contributors ix
Tony Smithis Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at Iowa State
University. Recent publications include The Logic of Marx’s ‘Capital’
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990);Dialectical Social Theory
and Its Critics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993); and
Technology and Capital in the Age of Lean Production(Albany: State University
of New York Press, 2000).