Failed Abstraction – The Problem of Uno Kōzō’s Reading of Marx’s Theory of the Value Form
In: Historical MaterialismAbstract
Uno Kōzō (1897–1977) was Japan’s foremost Marxian economist. His critique of Marx’s method in Capital, especially regarding the ‘premature’ introduction of value-form analysis in Volume I, motivated him to rewrite all three volumes of Capital in his book The Principles of Political Economy (–2).
Notwithstanding Uno’s increasing popularity in international Marx research, I will present a critical paper that looks at a fundamental misunderstanding in Uno’s reading of the value form. In what is one of the most significant discussions of the value form in postwar Japan, Uno argues that ‘value’ and money as its ‘bearer’ cannot be understood in abstraction from personal interaction and human wants in commodity exchange. By drawing on the Japanese documents and supporting the view of Uno’s rival Kuruma Samezō (1893–1982), I want to show that it can, and how Marx understood the ‘law of value’ as a non-personal law of social domination.
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Gayle Curtis A. Marxist History and Postwar Japanese Nationalism 2003 London Routledge
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Heinrich Michael Die Wissenschaft vom Wert. Die Marxsche Kritik der politischen Ökonomie zwischen wissenschaftlicher Revolution und klassischer Tradition [The Science of Value: The Marxian Critique of Political Economy between Scientific Revolution and Classical Tradition] 1999 Münster Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot
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Wie das Marxsche ‘Kapital’ lesen? Leseanleitung und Kommentar zum Anfang des ‘Kapital’ [How to Read Marx’s ‘Capital’: Reading Instructions and Commentary] 2009 Stuttgart Schmetterling Verlag
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Itō Makoto Value and Crisis: Essays on Marxian Economics in Japan 1980 London Pluto Press
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Kawakami Hajime ‘Kagaku to shite Marukusushugi keizaigaku’ [Marxist Political Economy as Science] 1928 available at: <http://www.marxists.org/subject/japan/kawakami/economy-science.htm>
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Kubota Ken ‘Die dialektische Darstellung des allgemeinen Begriffs des Kapitals im Lichte der Philosophie Hegels. Zur logischen Analyse der politischen Ökonomie unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Adornos und der Forschungsergebnisse von Rubin, Backhaus, Reichelt, Uno und Sekine’ [The Dialectical Presentation of the General Concept of Capital: The Logical Analysis of Political Economy, with Special Consideration to Adorno and the Research Results of Rubin, Backhaus, Reichelt, Uno and Sekine] Beiträge zur Marx-Engels-Forschung. Neue Folge 2009 Hamburg Argument-Verlag
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Kuruma Samezō Kachikeitairon to kōkankateiron [Value-Form Theory and Theory of the Exchange Process] 1957 Tokyo Iwanami Shoten
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Kuruma Samezō Marx-Lexikon zur politischen Ökonomie 1977 [1973] Vaduz Taunus
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Kuruma Samezō Schauerte Michael E. Marx’s Theory of the Genesis of Money: How, Why and Through What Is a Commodity Money? 2008 Denver Outskirts Press
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Kushida Tamizō Kachi oyobi kahei [Value and Money] Kushida Tamizō zenshū dai ni kan [The Collected Works of Kushida Tamizō] 1947 Volume 2 Tokyo Kaizōsha
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Marx Karl Briefe Januar 1868 bis Mitte Juli 1870 (Letters, January 1868–Middle of July 1870) Marx-Engels-Werke 1961 Volume 32 Berlin Karl-Dietz-Verlag
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Marx Karl Das Kapital, Band 3 Marx-Engels-Werke 1964 [1894] Volume 25 Berlin Karl-Dietz-Verlag
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Marx Karl Das Kapital, Band 1, Erstausgabe [Capital, Volume I, First Edition] Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe 1983 [1867] Volume 5 Berlin Karl-Dietz-Verlag Division II
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Marx Karl Das Kapital, Band 1 Marx-Engels-Werke 2008 Volume 23 Berlin Karl-Dietz-Verlag
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Masaki Hachirō ‘Marukusu no kaheishôhin setsu saikô’ [Rethinking Marx’s Money Commodity] Keizaigaku zasshi 1992 93 2 1 31
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Mukai Kimitoshi ‘Kahei no Genshôgaku. Marukusu kachiron no purobrematīku’ [The Phenomenology of Money: The Problematic of Marx’s Value Theory] Dôshisha shôgaku 1995 46 5/6 85 131
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Umezawa Naoki Kachiron no potensharu [The Potential of Value Theory] 1991 Tokyo Shōwa-dō
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Umezawa Naoki ‘Kachikeitairon no minaoshi no tame ni’ [Towards a Reconsideration of Value-Form Theory] Hikone ronsô 1992 331 103 120
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Uno Kōzō ‘Keizai hōsoku to shakaishugi – Sutārin shosetsu ni taisuru gimon’ [The Laws of Economy and Socialism – Doubts Concerning Stalin’s Opinions] Shisō 1953 352 10 1247 1262
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Keizai Genron [Principles of Political Economy] 1964 [1950–2] Tokyo Iwanami Zensho
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Uno Kōzō Sekine Thomas T. Principles of Political Economy: Theory of a Purely Capitalist Society 1980 Brighton The Harvester Press
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Uno Kōzō & Sakisaka Itsurō Shihonron kenkyû: Shōhin oyobi kōkan katei [Studies in Capital: The Commodity and the Exchange Process] 1948 Tokyo Kawade shobō
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Walker Gavin ‘The World of Principle, or Pure Capitalism: Exteriority and Suspension in Uno Kōzō’ Journal of International Economic Studies 2012 26 15 37
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2
Marx 1961, pp. 552–3. All translations from the original German and Japanese reference-literature quoted in this article are my own, except where otherwise indicated.
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3
Marx 2008, p. 107.
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6
Marx 2008, p. 52.
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10
Walker 2012, pp. 15–37. I refer to this work in a footnote below.
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12
Hoff 2008, p. 11.
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13
See Oguro 1986, p. 24.
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14
Hoston 1986, p. 35.
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18
Hoston 1986, p. 38. For a good overview of the Kōza-ha-Rōnō-ha debate, see Hoston 1986, pp. 35–75; Sugihara 1987, pp. 27ff.; Itō 1980, pp. 22ff.; Gayle 2003, pp. 24ff.; Hoff 2008, pp. 48–52.
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19
Hoff 2008, p. 98. See Fukumoto 1926.
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22
Morris-Suzuki 1989, p. 80. See Hoff 2008, p. 97.
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23
See Kawakami 1928.
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24
See Kushida 1947.
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27
Kuruma 1957, p. 3.
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29
See Kuruma 2008.
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35
See Kubota 2009.
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37
See Kuruma 1977.
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38
Albritton 1986, p. 2.
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39
See Kuruma 2008, p. 73. Original references: Uno and Sakisaka 1948, pp. 142, 157, 159, 160.
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40
Uno and Sakisaka 1948, p. 166.
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41
Uno and Sakisaka 1948, pp. 233–4.
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42
See Kuruma 2008, p. 95.
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43
Uno and Sakisaka 1948, p. 164. See also Kuruma 2008, p. 113. Uno’s overall rejection of the ‘substance’ or labour theory of value – and consequently his somewhat twisted understanding of Marx’s radical break with classical political economy – is probably best reflected in the following excerpt from the same book: ‘The abstraction of value from the exchange relation between two commodities discarding their owners is similar to the abstraction of fruit from pear and apple. . . . We must comprehend the relation between two commodities subjectively from the viewpoint of the linen owner, not objectively apart from both owners. If we start with such a formalistic abstraction as commodity linen and commodity coat to have something in common (a third which is neither linen nor coat), it is difficult to understand the true meaning that the linen is in the relative form with the coat in the equivalent form.’ (Uno and Sakisaka 1948, p. 178, emphasis added.) However, to ignore the ‘formalistic abstraction’ of reified human expenditure of labour power means also to ignore the whole idea of Capital, I claim: why in societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, human labour necessarily takes the form of value – the very condition under which commodities (‘bearers of value’) could be and are matter-of-factly exchanged.
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44
Kuruma 1957, pp. 24–5. I will quote the passage in full length below.
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45
Marx 2008, p. 107.
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46
Kuruma 1957, p. 40.
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47
Kuruma 1957, pp. 20–1.
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48
Marx 2008, p. 52.
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50
Marx 2008, p. 88.
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52
Marx 2008, p. 101. Emphasis added.
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53
Kuruma 1957, pp. 24–5.
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54
Marx 2008, p. 66.
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55
Kuruma 1957, p. 82. The corresponding passage in Marx is the following: ‘We see then that everything the analysis of commodity value told us before, is told by the linen itself, as soon as it interacts with another commodity, the coat. Except that it reveals its own thoughts in the only language it is familiar with, the language of commodities. In order to say that its own value is created by labour in its abstract quality of being human labour, it says that the coat, in so far as it counts as its (the linen’s) own equal, therefore being value, consists of the same labour as the linen does itself. In order to say that its sublime value-materiality [Wertgegenständlichkeit] is different from its materiality as a stiff canvas-like body, it says that value looks like a coat, and therefore – in so far as the linen itself is a value-thing – it and the coat are as alike as two peas.’ (Marx 2008, p. 67.)
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56
Marx 2008, p. 107.
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57
Marx 1983, p. 32.
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58
Marx 2008, p. 63.
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61
Marx 1983, p. 29.
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62
See Marx 2008, p. 82.
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64
Marx 2008, p. 77.
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67
Marx 2008, p. 78.
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69
Marx 2008, p. 79.
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70
Marx 2008, p. 83.
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71
Marx 1964, p. 997.
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72
Reichelt 2001, p. 144.
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73
Marx 1974, p. 907. Emphasis added.
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74
Reichelt 2001, p. 153.
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75
Reichelt 2001, p. 143.
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77
Uno 1964, pp. 19–20.
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78
Uno 1964, p. 5.
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80
Marx 1974, p. 920.
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81
Marx 2008, p. 99.
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82
Marx 2008, p. 209.
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83
Marx 2008, p. 169.
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84
Heinrich 1999, p. 206.
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Failed Abstraction – The Problem of Uno Kōzō’s Reading of Marx’s Theory of the Value Form
In: Historical MaterialismAbstract
Uno Kōzō (1897–1977) was Japan’s foremost Marxian economist. His critique of Marx’s method in Capital, especially regarding the ‘premature’ introduction of value-form analysis in Volume I, motivated him to rewrite all three volumes of Capital in his book The Principles of Political Economy (–2).
Notwithstanding Uno’s increasing popularity in international Marx research, I will present a critical paper that looks at a fundamental misunderstanding in Uno’s reading of the value form. In what is one of the most significant discussions of the value form in postwar Japan, Uno argues that ‘value’ and money as its ‘bearer’ cannot be understood in abstraction from personal interaction and human wants in commodity exchange. By drawing on the Japanese documents and supporting the view of Uno’s rival Kuruma Samezō (1893–1982), I want to show that it can, and how Marx understood the ‘law of value’ as a non-personal law of social domination.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 767 | 156 | 25 |
| Full Text Views | 451 | 8 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 129 | 29 | 2 |