Those who believe or sermonize that Marxism has failed reflect nothing but pompous ignorance. They may note than two-thirds of Marx's works (inGerman, Fench, Russian, English etc) were not published in the 20th Century.SR Natural Science Notes of Marx and Engels (1877 to 1883) - Part 1(http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2001/msg05490.html)
Pradip Baksi, translator of "Karl Marx: Mathematical Manuscripts", is one of the foremost authorities onMarx and Engels living today. Below, in several parts, is a very recent article by him titled: "The NaturalScience Excerpts and Notes of Marx and Engels: from the middle of 1877 to the beginning of 1883 (MEGA IV/31 -- A Review". From this article it becomes clear that the popular conception of a supposed division of labor between
Marx (political economy) and Engels (natural science) is actually a misconception. Marx and Engels were not fragmented, narrow-minded, Eurocentric thinkers – they were concerned with the process of development (natural science and human history) of the whole world. To quote from the last part of Baksi's article. "Marx and Engels lived and worked in many countries of Europe: in Germany, France, Belgium and England. Since the 1840s they developed an international perspective. This influenced their work. This is especially true of Marx. It appears from the various volumes of the MEGA and from a survey of the still unpublished notes and manuscripts preserved at Amsterdam and Moscow, that Marx not only studied a large number of disciplines like law, philosophy, history, political economy, technology, agriculture, chemistry, physics, geology, mathematics, physiology, ethnology etc., he also studied the history and conditions of a large number of countries such as Germany, France, England, Ireland, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, the Balkans, Italy, Spain, the USA, the Latin Americas, Algeria, India, China etc. The legacy of Marx is founded upon and consists of these studies. The contemporary students of Marx and fighters for socialism are required to take off from these horizons of encyclopaedic depth and width." Please note the word "encyclopaedic". In this list, superficial and ignorant comments have been made onMarx's supposed racism and ignorance of pre-capitalist societies. Such writers should realise, now especially with the on-going MEGA project, that Marx never studied any subject superficially (Engels has also commented on this aspect). Another example: contrary to popular academic opinion (both Western and Indian) about Marx's supposed ignorance of India (for evidence of which the famous 1850 NYDT articles are cited), Marx studied India for over 4 decades almost to the end of his life. According to Marx, slavery and feudalism (in the western European sense) never existed in India. In order to grapple with the verycomplex nature of pre-British Indian society, Marx used the term "Asiatic Mode of Production". The AMPhas been criticized by many subsequent historians and scholars. However, according to Baksi (who has aprofound knowledge of Indian history, religion and society), the AMP fits India (and also to some extentthe societies of Latin America before the Spanish conquest). How many of us know that Marx credited Manu (codifier of the Indian caste system) with the labour theory of value? How many of us have read Marx's later extracts on India from the work of the Russian historian Kovalevsky? If time permits, I may, in the future, post on the controversial AMP and India. According to Baksi, only 1/3 of Marx's writings have been published in the last century. So we have apartial understanding of Marx. Reading Marx in the original German gives a different flavor than readinghim in translated English. The translation has also caused some distortion. This also reflects on thecurrent hegemony and fragmentary viewpoint of Anglo-American Marxism (a majority of the referencescited by Baksi are non-English). One also wonders if scholars like John Bellamy Foster (author of 'Marx'sEcology'), David Harvey, and those of Monthly Review, have access to/are reading the MEGA volumes,especially those relating to science and technology.It will be a real service if these volumes will one day be translated into English for a global audience.Before we, from our pedestrian levels, throw stones, let us remember this: Karl Marx was a giant - thegreatest mind ever produced by western civilization. But he transcends the west and belongs to the wholeworld. Sid ------------------------------------------------The Natural Science Excerpts and Notes of Marx and Engels: from the middle of 1877 to the beginning of1883 (MEGA IV/31) -- A Review Pradlp Baksi KarlMarx/Friedrich Engels: Gesamtausgabe (MEGA).Herausgegeben von der Internationalen Marx-Engels-Stiftung, Amsterdam. IV Abteilung: Exzerpte, Notizen, Marginalien. Band 31: Naturwissenschaftliche Exzerpte und Notizen. Mitte1877 bis Anfang 1883. Bearbeitet von Annèliese Griese, Friederun Fessen. Peter Jäckel und GerdPawelzig.Berlin Akademie Verlag <e-mail info @ akademie-verlag.de>. 1999. In Zwei Ha1bbänder. Text:XVI, 614S.; Apparat: S. 615-1055; 22 Abb. DM 298. ISBN3-05-003399-1. MEGA IV/31 consists of two books Text and Apparat (text-critical Apparatus). The texts are divided intotwo parts. Part I contains Marx?s incomplete excerpts and notes on inorganic and organic chemistry and.electricity (pp. 3-473). Part 11 contains Engels? excerpts and notes on parts of physics and ecology(pp. 475-614). The text-critical Apparatus contains a general introduction to the volume: separateintroductions to the sub-sections of the texts: inventories of variant readings, corrections andcomments ? everywhere indicating the corresponding page and line number of the text; a name index;indexes of the literature used by the authors and, the editors; finally, a subject index (pp. 615-1055). Thetechnical standards of editing and production are veritable examples for others to follow. MEGA IV/31 provides new materials related to the hitherto little noticed natural science studies ofMarx and, some materials related to Engels? Dialectics of Nature. These materials are of interest for thestudy of the interrelationships of the natural and social sciences of 19th century, and, through them,for the study of the relations of the sciences with the modern movement for socialism. But before we gointo the texts of MEGA IV/31 and their contexts, a few words about the MEGA itself. (This is a part only)
Get your own FREE website, FREE domain & FREE mobile app with Company email. | Know More > |
__._,_.___
