Re: general, particular Holzkamp, Engeström

From: Wolff-Michael Roth (mroth@uvic.ca)
Date: Wed Oct 13 2004 - 08:45:02 PDT


Steve,
I am referring to chapter 1 in the German edition--

Marx says :
(p.55) that production for your own needs produces use-value but not
commodity
(p.57) in the use-value of each commodity there is a certain purposeful
activity or useful labor
(p.61) All labor ... produces value (of commodity)
(p.88) The two-fold social character of the labour of the individual
appears to him, when reflected in his brain, only under those forms
which are impressed upon that labour in every-day practice by the
exchange of products. In this way, the character that his own labour
possesses of being socially useful takes the form of the condition,
that the product must be not only useful, but useful for others,
((THis translation was taken from the English version on marxists.org))

The product of labor must be useful, importantly, for others...

So labor already implies the usefulness of the product for others...
Marx is not interested in production for my own needs, like my labor of
running an organic garden and eating my own vegetables year round.

On a final note, the English translation is atrocious. Marx wanted a
readable work, and was proud that commentators described the Kapital as
readable, even by non-academics. The English translation does not, in
my view, do justice to the original, and leaves out many of the
important shades of meaning... tradutore traditore

Michael

On 13-Oct-04, at 1:09 AM, Steve Gabosch wrote:

> Michael, where does Marx say this?
> "Marx clearly says that all activity implies the exchange situation
> ..."
>
> Thanks,
> ~ Steve
>



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