N

New Dialectics and Political Economy

Robert Albritton Professor of Political Science York University Toronto, Canada and John Simoulidis Department of Political Science York University Toronto, Canadaew Dialectics and Political Economy

Edited by Robert Albritton

Selection, editorial matter and Chapter 4 Robert Albritton 2003 Chapter 5 Moishe Postone 2003 Chapters 13, 611 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2003 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St Martins Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0333999339 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne

and John Sim

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 SelfMediation in Marxs 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 Lukcs: A Contribution to the Theory of Subjectivity Robert Albritton 60 5 Lukcs 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 Marxs 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

oulidisAcknowledgements The chapters in this volume were initially presented as papers at a workshop 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 outstanding 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. ROBERT ALBRITTON

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), Marxs 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-inGeneral and Marxs 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 HegelMarx Connection (New York: St. Martins Press, 2000); and ed. with G. Reu ten, The Circulation of Capital: Essays on Volume Two of Marxs Capital (New York: St Martins 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. Albrit ton 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 argument structure of dialectical logic. David McNally is 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 Patrick Murray is Professor of Philosophy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. His publications include Marxs Theory of Scientific Knowledge (Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1988); ed., Reflections on Commercial Life (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Marxs Truly Social Labour Theory of Value, in Historical Materialism, nos 6 and 7 (Summer 2000 and Winter 2000). Bertell Ollman is Professor of Politics at New York University. His publications include: Alienation: Marxs 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 Marxs 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 Marxs Capital (New York: St Martins Press, 1998); and with M. Campbell (eds), The Culmination of Capital: Essays on Volume III of Marxs 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. Tony Smith is Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at Iowa State University. Recent publications include The Logic of Marxs 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).