Monday, June 15, 2015

Capitalism and Contradiction

While Marx's concept of an "inversion" of Hegelianism is Dialectical Materialism, another, as has been previously suggested here, can be termed 'Dialectical Praxis'. One distinction between the two is their differing correlates of Hegelian Contradiction. While a Material Contradiction is constituted by conflicting forces, a Practical Contradiction, suggested by Kant, and by the Prisoner's Dilemma, consists in self-defeating behavior. Now, both varieties are prominent in Marxist writings. On the one hand, Class Conflict is a Material Contradiction. On the other, Practical Contradiction is exemplified in the following analysis: the profit-seeking Capitalist endeavors to minimize wages, which diminishes purchasing power, and, thus, reduces the possibility of profit-taking from the sales of produced goods. So, it is unclear whether, according to Marxism, the 'Contradictions of Capitalism' are primarily Material, or primarily Practical.

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