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Tag Archives: Karl Marx

A Letter From Marx To Engels In 1867 On The First Volume Of Capital

This is another letter in a series I have been transcribing in which Marx discusses Capital. In this letter, he says one of the two best points in his book is his discussion of labor expressed in use value or in exchange value. Since I have not read (an english edition of) the first edition, I cannot be sure of my ground here. Apparently, Marx revised Chapter 1 quite extensively among editions. Anyways, I think this expression of labor gets at the distinction between concrete and abstract...

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A Letter From Marx To Engels In 1867 On The Order Of Presentation In Capital

This is another letter in a series I have been transcribing in which Marx explains his theory to Engels. In 1867, he was going through the proofs of Capital and so penned several such letters. I think one can ignore Hegel and read Marx as presenting a scientific theory, from abstract principles to more concrete applications. I would not necessarily disagree with those who think such a reading misses much. But I find it interesting how much this reading captures. I like that in this...

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A Iterative Procedure Converging To Prices Of Production

Figure 1: Prices of Corn and Ale in an Iterative Process1.0 Introduction Anwar Shaikh proposed, sometime in the 1970s, I guess, an interpretation of Marx's transformation problem. Marx's solution in volume 3 of Capital is the first step of an iterative process. I thought I might work through this idea with an example from an old exposition of mine. I am not sure how faithful I am to Shaikh's approach. I notice that as I explain it, the equality of total values and of total prices is...

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Marx To Vera Zasulich In 1881

Is historical materialism a deterministic theory? Must all societies (in particular, Russia) go through the same stages, including feudalism, capitalism, and, eventually, socialism? Perhaps Marx says otherwise in the following letter. London, 8 March 1881 41 Maitland Park Road, N.W. Dear Citizen, A nervous complaint which has assailed me periodically over the last ten years has prevented me from replying any sooner to your letter of 16 February. I am sorry that...

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A Letter From Marx To Engels In 1862 On The Transformation Problem

Here Marx sets out the transformation problem in a letter to Engels. The first volume of Capital was published in 1967. So this is another instance of Marx distinguishing labor values and prices of production before publication of Capital. This post is the second in a series I am working on in which he sets out critical parts of the (critique of) political economy in Capital in letters to Engels. As I understand it, the concept of absolute rent was original with Marx. Marx criticizes...

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Selected Biographies Of Karl Marx

Selected Biographies AuthorYearTitleGustav Gross1885Karl Marx: Eine StudieWilliam Liebknecht1896Karl Marx, Biographical MemoirsPaul Lafargue1905My Recollections of Karl MarxVarious1908Karl Marx: In memoriamJonathan Spargo1910Karl Marx: his life and workClara Zetkin1913Karl Marx und Sein LebenswerkFranz Mehring1918Karl Marx: The story of his lifeOtto Ruhle1926Karl Marx: Leben und WerkDavid Riazanov1927Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: an introduction to their lives and worksInstitute of...

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A Letter From Marx To Engels In 1868 On The Transformation Problem

In this letter, Marx outlines the three volumes of Capital. I know about this letter from Fred Moseley's Money and Totality (2016). Is this where scholars learned about Marx's mother (-in-law?) saying, "If only Karl had accumulated capital instead of writing about it"? The context is a discussion, in a couple of previous letters, of the effects of inflation on the rate of profits. This letter is more evidence that Marx was quite conscious of the transformation problem. (Theories of Surplus...

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Böhm-Bawerk On The Close Of Marx’s System

1.0 Introduction I have previously quoted authorities disparaging Böhm-Bawerk's pamphlet examining the supposed contradiction between volumes 3 and 1 of Marx's Capital. I refer to Karl Marx and the Close of His System, first published in German, in 1896. Engels brought out volume 3 of Marx's Capital in 1894. Böhm-Bawerk's treatment, although it ultimately misses the point, is important from a historical angle: "...the historical importance of Böhm-Bawerk's criticism of Marx ... should...

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Books With ‘Capital’ In Their Title On My Bookshelf

Karl Marx was born on 5 May 1818. Over half a century ago, economists, building on the work of Piero Sraffa, extended Marx's critique. They showed that his approach to political economy was basically correct. The marginal revolution was a mistake. Here are the titles of some of the books on my bookshelf: Syed Ahmad. 1991. Capital in Economic Theory: Neo-classical, Cambridge and Chaos. Edward Elgar. C. E. Ayres. 1946. The Divine Right of Capital. Houghton Mifflin. Eugen von...

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Marx and Engels Collected Works

Several editions have been published of the works of Marx and Engels. One can also look in the Marxists Internet Archive. Many individual works have been published in various translations in various places. Marx's manuscripts ended up in the Institute of Social History (ISH), in Amsterdam. A first attempt was started in 1927, the first Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), in which the works were to be published in their original languages. This project was never completed. David Riazanov,...

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