Unit:
Deparment of EconomicsLibrary of the Faculty of Economics and of the Faculty of Business Administration
Author:
Balomenos Christos
Dissertation committee:
Μανιάτης Αθανάσιος (Επιβλέπων), Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Θεοχαράκης Νικόλαος (Συμβουλευτική και Εξεταστική επιτροπή), Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Τσουλφίδης Ελευθέριος (Συμβουλευτική και Εξεταστική επιτροπή), Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας
Αργείτης Γεώργιος (Εξεταστική επιτροπή), Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Κουντούρης Εμμανουήλ (Εξεταστική επιτροπή), Λέκτορας, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Μαυρουδέας Σταύρος (Εξεταστική επιτροπή), Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Κοινωνικής Πολιτικής, Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο
Τσαλίκη Περσεφόνη (Εξεταστική επιτροπή), Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης
Original Title:
Η Συμβολή της έκδοσης των M.E.G.A. σε κρίσιμα ζητήματα της Μαρξιστικής Πολιτικής Οικονομίας
Translated title:
The Contribution of the edition of M.E.G.A. to crucial issues of Marxist Political Economy
Summary:
In this dissertation, we investigate theoretically and archivally some questions connected to Karl Marx’s magnum opus, "Capital", and the debate over it. The dissertation is divided into three Parts with each Part being structured in several chapters.
In the first Part of the dissertation, we present the history of the theoretical debate over "Capital" in the framework of Marxist Political Economy since Marx’s death till the edition of P. Sweezy’s Theory of Capitalist Development in 1942. During that period, the debate is centered on the issues of the theoretical cohesion of Capital’ s three volumes as well as its adequacy to analyze the changing reality of capitalist economy.
In the second Part of the dissertation, we present the course of creation of the theoretical current of Neue Marx-Lektüre (New Reading of Marx) during the post-war period and its basic views. One basic characteristic of that course is the gradual shift of the emphasis from questions of Marxist Political Economy per se towards questions of philosophy, method and “epistemology” of Marxism along with the enhancement of idealistic elements in their analyses. The conclusion drawn from this theoretical debate, as presented in the first two Parts of the dissertation, is that the debate around "Capital" is centered on questions of value, credit and crisis.
In the third Part of the dissertation, we present the archival investigation of the arguments of Neue Marx-Lektüre and especially those of its basic modern representative, Michael Heinrich, about a) the existence of an important shift in Marx’s theoretical thought during the 1870s and b) a crucial amendment of the spirit and content of parts of Marx’s manuscripts of the third volume by Engels in the edition of that volume by him. The archival investigation is conducted through the examination of those manuscripts as included in the edition of Complete Works of Marx and Engels (Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe, MEGA) as well as through their comparison with basic points of the edition of the third volume and in particular its third and fifth Part which deal with the interest-bearing capital, credit and the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall respectively.
The basic conclusion of this archival investigation is that Heinrich’s two arguments cannot be proved and consequently on the one hand "Capital" depicts the real thought of Marx’s thought in the last part of his life and on the other hand it fully preserves its theoretical cohesion and competency of interpreting the phenomena of modern capitalist economy.
Main subject category:
Social, Political and Economic sciences
Keywords:
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, "Capital", edition of MEGA, New Reading of Marx, Michael Heinrich, interest-bearing capital, credit, law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall
Number of references:
244
