Political History Commons^™

Vintage Red.Docx, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

"Labour History And Its Political Role - A New Landscape, Terry Irving

Terence H Irving, Dr (Terry)

This address to a centenary issue forum for the Australian journal, "Labour History", focused on the political role of the journal in academic circles. It discussed the politics involved in the journal's foundation and the political implications of the redefinition of its field by Van der Linden, especially his use of the distinction between labour as toil and creative work. It is also a distinction made by recent 'autonomist' theorists. The article concludes by recommending that the journal should drop its present subtitle; that labour historians should pay more attention to the theoretical discussions of (working) class, multitude and subalternity; …

"Labour History And Its Political Role - A New Landscape, Terry Irving

Terry Irving

This address to a centenary issue forum for the Australian journal, "Labour History", focused on the political role of the journal in academic circles. It discussed the politics involved in the journal's foundation and the political implications of the redefinition of its field by Van der Linden, especially his use of the distinction between labour as toil and creative work. It is also a distinction made by recent 'autonomist' theorists. The article concludes by recommending that the journal should drop its present subtitle; that labour historians should pay more attention to the theoretical discussions of (working) class, multitude and subalternity; …

What's Wrong With Exploitation?, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Abstract: Marx thinks that capitalism is exploitative, and that is a major basis for his objections to it. But what's wrong with exploitation, as Marx sees it? (The paper is exegetical in character: my object is to understand what Marx believed,) The received view, held by Norman Geras, G.A. Cohen, and others, is that Marx thought that capitalism was unjust, because in the crudest sense, capitalists robbed labor of property that was rightfully the workers' because the workers and not the capitalists produced it. This view depends on a Labor Theory of Property (LTP), that property rights are based ultimately …

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …