CyberRose
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I mean credible as realistically implementable (ie capable of popular support)
Have You Read Capital vol. One?
- Thread starter danny la rouge
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danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
How are you judging that?
CyberRose
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On level of popularity
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Current popularity as a measure of potential popularity? A bit circular, wouldn't you say?
CyberRose
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Well I feel I'm unfairly dragging this thread off topic (and this only stems from an off-the-cuff remark I made about your assertion that Marx rarely offered an alternative) so I think I'll leave this particular debate to another thread...
Blagsta
Minimum cage, maximum cage
capital punishment?
love detective
there's no love too small
have read volumes 1 & 2
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Self proclaimed "commentator" not only hasn't read Capital, but hasn't read Marx. At all.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Maybe it's me but I think there is more discussion of Marx since the onset of the 2008 crisis? (a lot the discussion is shit, obviously).
And I think there are more people reading him too (perhaps it's made easier with things like the David Harvey lectures).
I finished volume 3 recently. I doubt I'd pass any exams in it, but I'm glad I did it.
And I think there are more people reading him too (perhaps it's made easier with things like the David Harvey lectures).
I finished volume 3 recently. I doubt I'd pass any exams in it, but I'm glad I did it.
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
TBF Hodges doesn't know much about very much.
Riklet
procrastinación
Hodges in 'proud to be an ignorant cunt' shocker.
I read like 1/2 or so a few years back when there was a thread on it. Some bits were very useful. Some bits really need retranslating and updating cos theyre just not easily intelligible any more I dont think. I dont even know what a shilling is!
I am a bit ashamed I never finished it but I did give it a go. And the David Harvey videos and his book too.
Does vol 1 need to be read with vol 2 and 3 to allow full 'insight' etc?
Ptolemy
like an unwound clock, I just don't seem to care.
Funny how this topic came up. I've just started reading it, after having let it gather dust for a few months. The first chapter on commodities is extremely hard going, but it's all very interesting. I'm writing a lot of notes as I go along, to make sure I fully understand it, and not zone out as I'm going from page to page.
The honest answer is that ive dipped and dipped over and over . But not completely read it. i suppose i regard it in the same way as i regard most academic text books, ie, for dipping in, raiding for insight and/or quotes, and moving to the next topic.
Some probably believe that its not possible to be a 'proper marxist' unless the complete works are tackled and absorbed, if so, then im a failed marxist.. Yet, i tend to view the world through some sort of marxist lens.
im probably just a lazy bugger content to let the heavyweights do the heavy lifting!
Some probably believe that its not possible to be a 'proper marxist' unless the complete works are tackled and absorbed, if so, then im a failed marxist.. Yet, i tend to view the world through some sort of marxist lens.
im probably just a lazy bugger content to let the heavyweights do the heavy lifting!
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
I found that the trick was to start with the Primitive Accumulation chapters because that gives you a way in through stories about humans, then go back to the beginning and tackle the really dry stuff with some sense of where it's supposed to be going.
Ptolemy
like an unwound clock, I just don't seem to care.
I might have to try this; hopefully it'll make the concepts stick if I've got some accessible stories to hang them on.
The only real difficulty I'm having atm is with the concept of value alone, as opposed to "use-value" and "exchange-value" which make enough sense.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
I think I remember having that problem. Might even have posted on here about it. Sorry not to be more help than that but it's not just you! (Just think about value as exchange value and crack on? That's basically what he's on about in vol1)
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Value is the labour embodied in a commodity.
There was a thread that started a while ago. I'm not sure whether it fizzled out or whether people just got past the first three chapters and found they didn't have as many questions.
Reading Marx's 'Capital': Tips, Questions, Theory, Support and Bookclub Bunfight...
Ptolemy
like an unwound clock, I just don't seem to care.
And just to remind you that it gets better and easier as you get a few chapters in, let me just repost this jem from the original thread (there was indeed a thread - and apparently I started it, blimey)
I plan to party hard once I break through the first three chapters - some inspiration here!
i have read Capital vol 1, several years ago now, in a reading group. I can't say i really understood it, and i'm not sure that the other people actually understood it either, not fully anyway.
While I do understand that there are difficult theoretical, philosophical books, it does seem to me problematic that a book that is supposed to help the working class will hardly be understood by most workers. According to Lenin, Marxists had misunderstood Marx as they had not studied Hegel's Logic! Now, again, this may well be the case, but if true means that it will hardly be understood by the majority of the working class, or indeed anybody else who is not an intellectual and highly educated in western philosophy, classical economics etc.
another obvious problem is that for Marx in Capital, he talks about the gold standard and value being tied to gold standard. that seems to no longer be the case.
nonetheless I would like to read it again and try to understand it.
While I do understand that there are difficult theoretical, philosophical books, it does seem to me problematic that a book that is supposed to help the working class will hardly be understood by most workers. According to Lenin, Marxists had misunderstood Marx as they had not studied Hegel's Logic! Now, again, this may well be the case, but if true means that it will hardly be understood by the majority of the working class, or indeed anybody else who is not an intellectual and highly educated in western philosophy, classical economics etc.
another obvious problem is that for Marx in Capital, he talks about the gold standard and value being tied to gold standard. that seems to no longer be the case.
nonetheless I would like to read it again and try to understand it.
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