A foundation model for marxian breakdown theories based on a new falling rate of profit mechanism (Long version)

The paper presents a foundation model for Marxian theories of the breakdown of capitalism based on a new falling rate of profit mechanism. All of these theories are based on one or more of "the historical tendencies": a rising capital-wage bill ratio, a rising capitalist share and a falling rate of profit. The model is a foundation in the sense that it generates these tendencies in the context of a model with a constant subsistence wage. The newly discovered generating mechanism is based on neo-classical reasoning for a model with land. It is non-Ricardian in that land augmenting technical progress can be unboundedly rapid. Finally, since the model has no steady state, it is necessary to use a new technique, Chaplygin's method, to prove the result.

A foundation model for marxian breakdown theories based on a new falling rate of profit mechanism.

The paper presents a foundation model for Marxian theories of the breakdown of capitalism based on a new falling rate of profit mechanism. All of these theories are based on one or more of ?the historical tendencies?: a rising capital-wage bill ratio, a rising capitalist share and a falling rate of profit. The model is a foundation in the sense that it generates these tendencies in the context of a model with a constant subsistence wage. The newly discovered generating mechanism is based on neo-classical reasoning for a model with land. It is non-Ricardian in that land augmenting technical progress can be unboundedly rapid. Finally, since the model has no steady state, it is necessary to use a new technique, Chaplygin?s method, to prove the result.

A foundation model for marxian theories of the breakdown of capitalism

Marx and the writers that followed him have produced a number of theories of the breakdown of capitalism. The majority of these theories were based on the historical tendencies: the rise in the composition of capital and the share of capital and the fall in the rate of profit. However these theories were never modeled with main stream rigour. This paper presents a constant wage model, with capital, labour and land as factors of production, which reproduces the historical tendencies and so can be used as a foundation for the various theories. The use of Chaplygins theorem in the proof of the main result also gives the paper a technical interest.

A marxian model of the breakdown of capitalism

This paper sets out a Marxian model that is based on the one by Stephen Marglin with one sector and continuous substitution. It is extended by adding technical progress and land as a factor of production. It is then shown that capital accumulation causes the preconditions for the breakdown of capitalism to emerge; that is, it causes the organic composition of capital to rise, the rate of profit to fall and the rate of exploitation to rise. A compressed history of the idea of the breakdown of capitalism is then set out and an explanation is given as to how the model relates to this and how it may serve as the basis for further research.

Marxian insights from the mainstream

Starting in 1999 a group of papers have appeared in mainstream journals that treat of the relation between capitalism and democracy in an eminently Marxian fashion. These analyses bear on a number of papers published mainly in S&S, specifically those of Castañada, Ellman, Harnacker, Nimtz and Petras. This paper provides résumés of all of these works and then sets out the implications of the mainstream papers for the left wing ones. It concludes by emphasising the importance for the left of the mainstream results.

A descriptive and analytic look at Marxs own explanations for the falling rate of profit

Marxs conclusions about the falling rate of profit have been analysed exhaustively. Usually this has been done by building models which broadly conform to Marxs views and then showing that his conclusions are either correct or, more frequently, that they can not be sustained. By contrast, this paper examines, both descriptively and analytically, Marxs arguments from the Hodgskin section of Theories of Surplus Value, the General Law section of the recently published Volume 33 of the Collected Works and Chapter 3 of Volume III of Capital. It also gives a new interpretation of Part III of this last work. The main conclusions are first, that Marx had an intrinsic explanation of the falling rate of profit but was unable to give it a satisfactory demonstration and second, that he had a number of subsidiary explanations of which the most important was resource scarcity. The paper closes with an assessment of the pedigree of various currents of Marxian thought on this issue.

A descriptive and analytic look at Marxs own explanations for the falling rate of profit (Long Version)

Marxs conclusions about the falling rate of profit have been analysed exhaustively. Usually this has been done by building models which broadly conform to Marxs views and then showing that his conclusions are either correct or, more frequently, that they can not be sustained. By contrast, this paper examines, both descriptively and analytically, Marxs arguments from the Hodgskin section of Theories of Surplus Value, the General Law section of the recently published Volume 33 of the Collected Works and Chapter 3 of Volume III of Capital. It also gives a new interpretation of Part III of this last work. The main conclusions are first, that Marx had an intrinsic explanation of the falling rate of profit but was unable to give it a satisfactory demonstration and second, that he had a number of subsidiary explanations of which the most important was resource scarcity. The paper closes with an assessment of the pedigree of various currents of Marxian thought on this issue.

Com coneixen Descartes i Hume? : Una petita història del coneixement i les seves conseqüències contemporànies

És una anàlisi sobre el problema del coneixement als segles XVII (racionalisme) i XVIII (empirisme) i la seva influència en l'epistemologia contemporània. En concret, es comparen les teories del coneixement de René Descartes i de David Hume, es demostra la seva vigència al segle XXI i es proposa una aplicació extrafilosòfica al seu pensament.

Discourse, knowledge, power and politics: towards critical epistemic discourse analysis

Although both are fundamental terms in the humanities and social sciences, discourse and knowledge have seldom been explicitly related, and even less so in critical discourse studies. After a brief summary of what we know about these relationships in linguistics, psychology, epistemology and the social sciences, with special emphasis on the role of knowledge in the formation of mental models as a basis for discourse, I examine in more detail how a critical study of discourse and knowledge may be articulated in critical discourse studies. Thus, several areas of critical epistemic discourse analysis are identified, and then applied in a study of Tony Blair’s Iraq speech on March 18, 2003, in which he sought to legitimatize his decision to go to war in Iraq with George Bush. The analysis shows the various modes of how knowledge is managed and manipulated of all levels of discourse of this speech.

El origen de la construcción fenomenalista: Mach, Moore y Whitehead

It's usually believed that the idea of applying logical methods to constructivist phenomenalism was, --in general- a result of Russell's originality. In this paper is argued that some important ideas were in fact due to Mach, Moore and Whitehead. According to the author, Russell got from Mach the general idea of epistemology as an analysis of scientific concepts and, specially,the idea of sensations as the building blocks for his logical construction. Moore made Russell believe that only sensations are known in a direct way, and so, the existence of external objects as the cause of our perceptions is only inferred. Moreover, according to the author, Russell's views on sense data -his sensibilia- are also due to Moore. Finally, Russell got from Whitehead the idea of the phenomenical reconstruction as an alternative to the causal theory of perception, and also how the logical construction should be done. The author undertakes also a detailed analysis of some early works of Whitehead not very well known.

Teories de l’imperialisme. Un estat de la qüestió

El propòsit d’aquest treball és presentar i discutir les diferents teories sobre l’anomenat «imperialisme modern», delimitat cronològicament des de finals del segle XIX fins a l’inici de la Primera Guerra Mundial. A més a més, és també l’objectiu d’aquest article mostrar l’evolució de la discussió presentant aquestes teories en ordre cronològic i insistint en com els conceptes «imperialisme» i «colonialisme» han canviat de significat. Les teories marxistes i liberals de principis del segle XX consideraven l’imperialisme un procés fonamentalment econòmic mentre que la teoria sociològica de Schumpeter el veia com un atavisme. Algunes teories després de les guerres mundials han insistit en la importància de parar atenció en els territoris colonitzats i en com la seva relació amb Europa ha afectat la nova forma imperial. Les explicacions més recents n’han destacat aspectes molt diferents, des de la importància sobre com ha permès l’expansió del lliure-comerç fins a l’imperialisme com una perversió del nacionalisme.

Historias de vida en educación: biografías en contexto

[spa] Esta publicación recoge los trabajos presentados en las I Jornadas de Historias de Vida en Educación: Cuestiones epistemológicas, metodológicas, éticas y de formación que, organizadas por el grupo de investigación consolidado ESBRINA (Subjetividades y entornos educativos contemporáneos -2009SGR 503), se celebraron en el Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Educativa de la Universidad de Barcelona los días 10 y 11 de junio de 2010.A las mismas asistieron unas 50 personas -docentes e investigadores universitarios y estudiantes de máster y doctorado de España, Portugal, México, Chile, Italia, Francia y Brasil- quienes, después de una introducción por parte de las personas que coordinaban los temas, debatieron con intensidad las cuestiones que emergieron de la lectura de las contribuciones que algunos de los participantes enviaron previamente. Con posterioridad, la mayoría revisaron sus presentaciones para acomodarla al formato de esta publicación.

Historias de vida en educación: biografías en contexto

[spa] Esta publicación recoge los trabajos presentados en las I Jornadas de Historias de Vida en Educación: Cuestiones epistemológicas, metodológicas, éticas y de formación que, organizadas por el grupo de investigación consolidado ESBRINA (Subjetividades y entornos educativos contemporáneos -2009SGR 503), se celebraron en el Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Educativa de la Universidad de Barcelona los días 10 y 11 de junio de 2010.A las mismas asistieron unas 50 personas -docentes e investigadores universitarios y estudiantes de máster y doctorado de España, Portugal, México, Chile, Italia, Francia y Brasil- quienes, después de una introducción por parte de las personas que coordinaban los temas, debatieron con intensidad las cuestiones que emergieron de la lectura de las contribuciones que algunos de los participantes enviaron previamente. Con posterioridad, la mayoría revisaron sus presentaciones para acomodarla al formato de esta publicación.

Historias de vida en educación: biografías en contexto

[spa] Esta publicación recoge los trabajos presentados en las I Jornadas de Historias de Vida en Educación: Cuestiones epistemológicas, metodológicas, éticas y de formación que, organizadas por el grupo de investigación consolidado ESBRINA (Subjetividades y entornos educativos contemporáneos -2009SGR 503), se celebraron en el Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Educativa de la Universidad de Barcelona los días 10 y 11 de junio de 2010.A las mismas asistieron unas 50 personas -docentes e investigadores universitarios y estudiantes de máster y doctorado de España, Portugal, México, Chile, Italia, Francia y Brasil- quienes, después de una introducción por parte de las personas que coordinaban los temas, debatieron con intensidad las cuestiones que emergieron de la lectura de las contribuciones que algunos de los participantes enviaron previamente. Con posterioridad, la mayoría revisaron sus presentaciones para acomodarla al formato de esta publicación.