Monday, June 20, 2016

The 'Psychohistorical Dialectic' of human Nature Overall -- A Specimen from Marx, in "Capital", volume I.



The 'Psychohistorical Dialectic' of human Nature Overall -- A Specimen from Marx, in Capital, volume I.











Dear Reader,


Pasted-in below, for your information and enjoyment, is an E.D. [Encyclopedia Dialectica] ‘dialectogram’ diagram, representing an example of the overall dialectic of human nature that
was presented by Karl Marx in volume I of his «Das Kapital.».

Marx described this diachronic 'Psychohistorical dialectic' as follows:  “The foundation of every division of labour that is well-developed, and brought about by the exchange of commodities, is the separation
between town and country.  It may be said, that the whole economic history of society is summed up in the movement of this antithesis.  We pass over it, however, for the present.”

[Karl Marx, Capital, vol. I, New World [NY:  1967], p. 352].

Captions for each of the categories in the categories triad forming this dialectic are as follows --

1.  «arché» category -- The Terran human[oid] «species» began, to our best present knowledge,
as extended-family-based “bands of nomadic co-hunting, co-gathering, co-foraging, & co-scavenging Appropriators of products of exo-human Nature in their “raw” forms, without even proto-Urbansettlements, until semi-settled, multi-bandcamps irrupted.

2.  contra-category -- Emergence of human Urbanicity, from out of the womb of a once
all-pervasive ‘Rurality, begins with the “campssocial formations, progressing through villages, chiefdoms, & city-states epochs, all the way up to our present, nation-state-subsumed
formations of Urban “metropolises” & “megalopolises”.

3.  uni-category -- We see this ‘socio-ontological category’ as not yet fully extant presently, but only fractionally so.  Perhaps suburbanism is its most prominent present-day fractional «species».  In a post-capitalist future, we foresee formations of connected communities, based, e.g., in coalitions of Citizen Stewardship Equity socialized producers cooperatives, with their cores housing advanced 3D printers’ omni-factfactories, & omni-comsurround-screen tele-conference rooms, for larger ‘tele-meetings’, & also supplied by robotized trucks & airborne drones, helping make for  “a more equable distribution of population over the country.” [Marx and Engels].



Both Marx and Engels, in both their joint and their separate writings, touched repeatedly upon this 'Psychohistorical dialectic' of city versus countryside.  One very early [1845-1846] case of such joint exposition is the following --

“The greatest division of material and mental labour is the separation of town and country.  The antagonism between town and country begins with the transition from barbarism to civilization, from tribe [F.E.D.:  chiefdom] to [F.E.D.:  city-]State, from locality to nation, and runs through the whole history of civilisation to the present day . . .”   

“The existence of the town implies, at the same time, the necessity of administration, police, taxes, etc., in short, of the municipality, and thus of politics in general.  Here first became manifest the division of the population into two great classes, which is directly based on the division of labour and on the instruments of production.” 

“The town already is in actual fact the concentration of the population, of the instruments of production, of capital, of pleasures, of needs, while the country demonstrates just the opposite fact, isolation and separation.”

“The antagonism between town and country can only exist within the framework of private property.  It is the most crass expression of the subjection of the individuals under the division of labour, under a definite activity forced upon him -- a subjection which makes one man into a restricted town-animal, the other into a restricted country-animal, and daily creates anew the conflict between their interests.” [Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, The German Ideology, Progress Publishers [Moscow:  1968], p. 65].
 


Enjoy!


Regards,

Miguel






















Sunday, June 19, 2016

Dialectics of Nature -- A Specimen from Marx, in "Capital", volume I.



Dialectics of Nature -- A Specimen from Marx, in Capital, volume I.











Dear Readers,


Pasted-in below, for your information and enjoyment, is an E.D. [Encyclopedia Dialectica] ‘dialectogram’ diagram, representing an example of the dialectic of nature -- of exo-human nature -- that was presented by Karl Marx in volume I of his «Das Kapital.».

Marx described this synchronic dialectic as follows:  “This is generally the way in which real contradictions are solved.  For instance, it is a contradiction to depict one body as constantly
falling towards another, and as, at the same time, constantly falling away from it.  The ellipse is a form of motion which, while allowing this contradiction to go on, at the same time reconciles it.” [Karl Marx, Capital, vol. I, New World [NY:  1967], pp. 103-104].

The passage immediately preceding that quoted above reads as follows:  We saw in a former chapter that the exchange of commodities implies contradictory and mutually exclusive conditions.  The differentiation of commodities into commodities and money does not sweep away these inconsistencies, but develops a modus vivendi, a form in which they can exist side by side.”

Marx’s use of a dialectic of exo-human nature to clarify an observation about a dialectic of human nature phenomenon shows that Marx holds to a universal dialectical principle of opposition resolution, or of conflict reconciliation, or of dialectical contradiction solution/- dialectical synthesis presenting itself in real, as opposed to illusory, metaphysical, dialectic, across the material expanse of nature, physical & human [psychophysical] alike.

The captions for each of the categories in the triad of categories forming this dialectic are --

1.  «arché» category -- The gravitational fields centered in, e.g., a planetary body & a moon of that planet, manifest as vectors of acceleration whose directions make each body fall toward" the other.  But self-critique of this description, in the face of observations, reveals its lacks.

2.  contra-category -- Immanent critique of the first description evokes a counter-description. The moon especially also evinces a radial acceleration directed away from its planet, breaking its fall towards. The towards & away motions constitute a physical opposition. Asserting both at the same time forms a contradictory proposition.

3.  uni-category -- The physical, directional mutual opposition of “falling” towards & away does not stop in this elliptical synthesis/solution.  But, if they balance, acomplex unity Orbit with a certain degree of eccentricity arises & sustains.

The quoted passages should help to refute the false claims of those who hold that Marx denied, and disapproved of, the views of Engels regarding the existence of dialectic within exo-human nature.


Enjoy!


Regards,

Miguel