This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2016) |
Part of a series on the |
Marxian critique of political economy |
---|
Value criticism (German : Wertkritik) is a social theory which draws its foundation from the Marxian tradition and criticizes the contemporary mode of production. Value criticism was developed partly by critical readings of the traditions of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Prominent adherents of value criticism include Robert Kurz, Moishe Postone and Jean-Marie Vincent .
Value criticism takes crucial aspects of Marx's critiques of commodity fetishism, commodities and value, while criticizing Marx's theory of class struggle and historical materialism. As a result, proponents of Value Criticism feel that the working class is not necessarily a revolutionary subject. Instead, it is pointed out that labor has to be understood as a historic specific entity and that criticizing capitalism implies not only criticizing the distribution process in capitalism, but also the capitalistic production process and the productive powers. From this, they conclude that all actually existing "socialisms" thus far have been in essence forms of state-led capitalism (nachholenden Modernisierung), where production still followed capitalistic principles. This interpretation, which rejects the traditional Marxist–Leninist point of view, is defended in the early text from 1999: Manifesto Against Labour . [1]
In addition to value criticism, a new branch appeared by the widow of Robert Kurz, Roswitha Scholz. The so-called critique of value-dissociation [2] (in German called "Wertabspaltungskritik") includes not only precise descriptions of the "abstract and fetishized character of modern domination", [3] but also seeks to explain why irrational attitudes are delegated to women, while men are counted as relatively rational actors in the capitalistic society.
Publishers of value criticism in Germany are the Krisis group and Exit!, to both of which Robert Kurz made crucial contributions. Much value critical literature has still to be translated into English. Elmar Flatschart from the University of Vienna is also publishing in English for the Exit! group. Moishe Postone and his work "Time, Labor and Social Domination" is often cited by value critics.
Moishe Postone was a Canadian historian, sociologist, political philosopher and social theorist. He was a professor of history at the University of Chicago, where he was part of the Committee on Jewish Studies.
Roman Osipovich Rosdolsky was a prominent Ukrainian Marxian scholar, historian and political theorist. Rodolsky's book of 1968 entitled Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Marxschen 'Kapital' : Der Rohentwurf des Kapital 1857–1858, became a foundational text in the rediscovery of Marx critique of political economy, as well as influenced later scholars such as Moishe Postone.
Krisis is an anti-political German political magazine and discussion group formed in 1986 as a "theoretical forum for a radical critique of capitalist society." Its members includes Robert Kurz, Roswitha Scholz, Nobert Trenkle, Ernst Lohoff, Achim Bellgart and Franz Schandl.
Marxology is a systematic scholarly approach to the understanding of Karl Marx and Marxism. The term was first used by David Ryazanov, librarian of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, around 1920 as he set out to publish the complete works of Marx and Engels. During the Second World War, Maximilien Rubel introduced the term into France. He was astonished by the lack of any sustained understanding of the life and works of Marx by self-proclaimed Marxists active in the French resistance during the occupation of Paris.
Helmut Reichelt is a German Marxian critic of political economy, sociologist and philosopher. Reichelt is one of the main authors of the “Neue Marx-Lektüre” and considered to be one of the most important theorists in the field of Marx's theory of value.
The Marxist Group was one of the largest communist organization of the "New Left" in West Germany. The program of the MG focused on the abolition of private property and of the state altogether. The group aspired to have the free-market economy replaced by social planning according to the specific needs that were present.
Walter Dubislav was a German logician and philosopher of science (Wissenschaftstheoretiker).
Critique of political economy or simply the first critique of economy is a form of social critique that rejects the conventional ways of distributing resources. The critique also rejects what its advocates believe are unrealistic axioms, faulty historical assumptions, and taking conventional economic mechanisms as a given or as transhistorical. The critique asserts the conventional economy is merely one of many types of historically specific ways to distribute resources, which emerged along with modernity.
Neue Marx-Lektüre or NML is a revival and interpretation of Karl Marx's critique of political economy, which originated during the mid-1960s in both Western and Eastern Europe and opposed both Marxist–Leninist and social democratic interpretations of Marx. Neue Marx-Lektüre covers a loose group of authors primarily from German-speaking countries who reject certain historicizing and empiricist interpretations of Marx's analysis of economic forms, many of which are argued to spring from Friedrich Engels role in the early Marxist workers' movement.
Gerhard Stapelfeldt is a German sociologist. He was a university teacher at University of Hamburg until December 2010.
Stahlgewitter is a controversial German hard rock and Rock Against Communism group founded in 1995. Despite the genre's name, RAC song lyrics rarely focus on the specific topic of anti-communism. Rather, RAC lyrics typically feature nationalist themes. Stahlgewitter is listed by the group 'Netz gegen Nazis' as one of the more popular contemporary Rock Against Communism groups. This categorises Stahlgewitter in amongst other more historical Rock Against Communism groups such as the English band Skrewdriver which played a lending role in the formation of RAC and the fellow German band Landser who are now deemed a "criminal gang organisation" in Germany.
Robert Kurz was a German philosopher, social critic, journalist and editor of the journal Exit! He was one of Germany's most prominent theorists of value criticism.
Michael R. Krätke has studied economics, sociology and political science at the Free University Berlin, worked as Assistant professor of sociology at the Free University Berlin and at the University of Bielefeld, in 1981 he became Associate professor of political economy at the University of Amsterdam, was professor for sociology, chair of political economy and director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Lancaster University. Since 1978, he has been an editor of the German scholarly journal spw – Zeitschrift für sozialistische Politik und Wirtschaft.
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, also known as Capital and Das Kapital, is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy and critique of political economy written by Karl Marx, published as three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his life's work, the text contains Marx's analysis of capitalism, to which he sought to apply his theory of historical materialism "to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society", following from classical political economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. The text's second and third volumes were completed from Marx's notes after his death and published by his colleague Friedrich Engels. Das Kapital is the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950.
Claus Peter Ortlieb was a German mathematician (PhD), critic of work, critic of political economy, and a critic of contemporary science, especially regarding its use of mathematics. He was an editor for the journal EXIT!.
Michael Heinrich is a German historian of philosophy and political scientist, specialising in the critical study of the development of Karl Marx's thought. Heinrich's work, influenced by Elmar Altvater and the Neue Marx-Lektüre of Hans-Georg Backhaus and Helmut Reichelt is characterised by its focus on the points of ambivalence and inconsistency in the work of Marx. Through this theme, Heinrich challenges both the closed system he identifies with "worldview Marxism", as well as teleological narratives of Marx's intellectual development throughout his life. He is best known for his 1991 study of the theoretical field of classical political economy The Science of Value, his introductory text to the critique of political economy An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital, and his ongoing project to produce a multi-volume biography of Marx, of which the first volume of a projected four was published in 2020.
Capital is a central concept in Marxian critique of political economy, and in Marxian thought more generally.
EXIT! is a German journal of social criticism, and discussion group formed in 2004. The journal is published by the publishing house Zu Klampen Verlag. The journal has a value-critical approach, both to the contemporary mode of production, and its critique of traditional marxism, as well as their critique of political economy.
Tomasz Konicz is an author and journalist.
Roswitha Scholz, born in Germany in 1959, is a philosopher and a social theorist. She works as a editor for EXIT! journal, which she co-founded in 2004, after participating in the Krisis group and magazine.