Towards Understanding Marx’s Theory of Equilibrium and Prices of Production (original) (raw)

Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 2019/20

"first of all, a process between man and nature, a process by which man, through his own actions, mediates, regulates and controls the metabolism between himself and nature" (Karl Marx: Capital: A critique of political economy Volume One. Translated by Ben Fowkes. London 2004, p. 638). This is the sense in which "labor" must be understood in this paper. Some regard labor as the metabolism between human and nature, but this interpretation is incorrect. Indeed, labor is itself part of the metabolism between human beings and nature. However, the uniqueness of labor is not merely that it is a material metabolism, but that it is a process that "mediates, regulates, and controls" that metabolism. Therefore, the view that interprets Marx's understanding of "labor" as limited to "material labor" is also incorrect. 3 Karl Marx: Notes on Wagner's Lehrbuch der politischen Oekonomie. In: MECW. Vol. 24, p. 534. 4 Marx also writes: "I do not proceed from 'concepts', hence neither from the 'concept of value', and am therefore in no way concerned to 'divide' it. What I proceed from is the simplest social form in which the product of labor presents itself in contemporary society, and this is the 'commodity'." (Ibid., p. 544). 5 See e.g. Kliman: Reclaiming Marx's "Capital" (fn. 1) and Paul M. Sweezy: The Theory of Capitalist Development. New York 1942. 6 See David Harvey: A Companion to Marx's Capital. London 2010. Although Harvey emphasizes the importance of understanding the commodity as a unity of dual aspect, he carelessly defines "something called value [...] as socially necessary labor-time" (ibid, p. 23).