Guglielmo Carchedi
Biographic Data
| ID | 292834 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Guglielmo Carchedi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Guglielmo |
| FAMILY NAME | Carchedi |
| SIGNATURE | CARCHEDI G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 133 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Beating the Untrodden Paths
The fulcrum of this work is knowledge: what it is and how it is generated within the context of a capitalist society. First, Marx’s analysis of the objective labour process is extended to the mental labour process. Then, objective and mental labour processes are defined in terms of objective and mental transformations, with consideration paid to which of the two types of transformation is determinant. This requires a discussion of dialectical log…
On the Economic Identification of Social Classes
First published in 1977, On the Economic Identification of Social Classes centres around the economic identification – the definition in terms of production relations – of social classes, focussing on the developed capitalist countries. The basic stages of capitalist development are considered, with special emphasis on monopoly capitalism. The book includes a detailed analysis of the functional element of the capitalist production relations; the …
Capitalism in the 21st Century
The Ontology and Social Dimension of Knowledge
The increasing saturation of all facets of contemporary capitalism, including human labour, with computer and digital technologies, has given rise to a number of apologetic concepts, variously termed the information society, cognitive capitalism and digital capitalism. These concepts are ideological in nature. They have gained wide acceptance because of the underdevelopment of Marxist epistemology. This article submits a Marxist theory of knowled…
The Economics of Modern Imperialism
This work focuses exclusively on the modern economic aspects of imperialism. We define it as a persistent and long-term net appropriation of surplus value by the high-technology imperialist countries from the low-technology dominated countries. This process is placed within the secular tendential fall in profitability, not only in the imperialist countries but also in the dominated ones. We identify four channels through which surplus value flows…
Was the Great Recession A Crisis of Profitability
Old wine, new bottles and the Internet
The Internet has given a new shape to modern capitalism. These new features have drawn the attention of numerous scholars and have become the focus of highly topical and controversial questions. However, as a rule, the literature has not taken as its starting point the development of a Marxist epistemology. The reason for this is the failure to derive a Marxist theory of knowledge from Marx's value theory. This is the task this article sets itsel…
Mathematics and Dialectics in Marx
Behind the Crisis
Drawing on modern philosophy of science, epistemology, economics and sociology, this work retraces Marx’s original multi-disciplinary project and develops its foundations into a modern Marxist paradigm capable of understanding the present crisis and of challenging contemporary capitalism
A comment on Bonefeld's 'Abstract labour
In a recent article in this journal, Werner Bonefeld (2010) raises some criticisms of my position on abstract labour (Carchedi, 2009). Bonefeld quotes Rubin to the effect that, 'it is not possible to reconcile a physiological concept of abstract labour with the historical character of the value which it creates' (Bonefeld, 2010: 258). Bonefeld agrees, and finds an ambiguity in Marx because Marx supposedly holds both a physiological and a social/h…
The Fallacies of 'New Dialectics' and Value-Form Theory
Chris Arthur's approach aims at a systematic re-ordering of Marx's categories. This article argues that his approach is actually a different ordering of different categories that are positioned within a specific theoretical whole, a Hegelian re-interpretation of Marx and especially of abstract labour, which distances itself from Marx. While the debate has focused mainly on the philosophical aspects of Arthur's work, its economic features have not…
From Okishio to Marx through dialectics
The law of the tendential fall in the profit rate provides the basis for a Marxist critique not only of neoliberalism but also of Keynesian anti-crises policies. This article argues that Okishio's critique of the law, far from providing the definitive proof of its inconsistency, is undermined by a logical inconsistency and is based on the replacement of Marx's notion of labour as value creating with conventional economics' notion of labour as a c…
Dialectics and Temporality in Marx's Mathematical Manuscripts. 1
Logic and Dialectics in Social Science, Part II
Building upon the theory submitted in the previous issue of this journal, this article examines both similarities and differences with Engels' dialectics of nature. It argues that Engels' approach is unsuitable to reveal the specificity of society's movement towards both reproduction and supersession. It then considers the basic features of formal logic and compares them with dialectical logic. It stresses the class nature of formal logic and the…
Logic and Dialectics in Social Science, Part I
This article develops a new dialectical method of social research. Contrary to the Hegelian tradition, it extracts this method from Marx's own work by taking a class-determined perspective of social phenomena. Contrary to formal logic it stresses social reality's dynamism by focusing on social phenomena's contradictory nature. It starts by setting out the three principles upon which dialectical logic rests. It then examines individual phenomena a…
Remarx
This essay examines whether the European Union, already the most powerful economic and financial rival of the United States, can develop its military arm to a level compatible with its economic and financial weight. It concludes by suggesting a parallel between European currency and the European military. The ECU started as virtual money that evolved into the Euro to become a real danger for the U.S. dollar. At this point, the nascent EU army is …
Tsakalotos on Homo Economicus
On the Production of Knowledge
This article aims at contributing to the development of a Marxist theory of the production of knowledge, and in particular of natural sciences and techniques (NST), under capitalism. It rejects the double critique that the labor theory of value has become obsolete under modern capitalism and that Marx’s theoretical structure cannot accommodate mental production. The paper starts with two preliminary sections. First, some relevant aspects of diale…
Sapiens nihil affirmat quod non probat
This paper responds to Ernesto Screpanti's critique of Guglielmo Carchedi's approach to Marx's transformation procedure. It argues that there is no logical inconsistency in that procedure once one introduces time, rather than denying it as Marx's critics do. Further, it examines Screpanti's critique and argues that, while Marx's algebra is correct, Screpanti's own 'refutation' of Marx is invalid because it balances neither in physical nor in alge…
The Fallacies of Keynesian Policies
This article examines the effectiveness of Keynesian policies from the perspective of Marxian value theory. It starts from a sketch of the economic cycle, whose ultimate cause is identified in the decreasing production of (surplus) value following technological innovations, and argues that the strongest case for Keynesian civilian policies is not the redistribution of a (decreasing) mass of value. Rather, they should spur the production of more v…
Waste, Weapons and Crises
Imperialist Contradictions at the Threshold of the Third Millennium
Debates on whether capitalism has entered a new phase are not new to Marxism and have coincided with periods of deep social, economic and political transformations. Not by chance, then, has the same question emerged again after the fall and disintegration of the Soviet Union. What follows argues that this momentous event has ushered in a new phase of inter-imperialist relations. The focus will be on EU imperialism versus US imperialism. The thesi…
Communications
A Missed Opportunity
Brenner's ‘The Economics of Global Turbulence’ is a review of the world economy in the second half of the 20th century and its momentous changes. It deals with a wide range of issues and developments and is supported by a wealth of statistical and historical material. At the same time, it debunks many of the myths upon which recent (economic) history has been written. Perhaps even more importantly, it seeks the causes of crises in the laws of mot…
Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics
This new volume develops a rigorous equilibrium-free political economy based on labour values. Rooted in a non-dualistic approach restoring money to its central role in a commodity economy, Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics is the fruit of extensive international collaboration reflecting a profound critical reappraisal of Marx’s theoretical work and its relation to modern economics
On the Economic Identification of Social Classes
First published in 1977, On the Economic Identification of Social Classes centres around the economic identification – the definition in terms of production relations – of social classes, focussing on the developed capitalist countries. The basic stages of capitalist development are considered, with special emphasis on monopoly capitalism. The book includes a detailed analysis of the functional element of the capitalist production relations; the …
The logic of prices as values∗
There are two major lines of criticism moved at Marx's approach to the transformation of values into prices. The circularity critique holds that constant and variable capital appear in Marx's numerical examples as inputs at their individual values and as outputs at their social, transformed value (or price of production). This critique is rejected as being foreign to Marx's methodology. Rather, the problem, when correctly formulated, is why and h…
The Economics of Modern Imperialism
This work focuses exclusively on the modern economic aspects of imperialism. We define it as a persistent and long-term net appropriation of surplus value by the high-technology imperialist countries from the low-technology dominated countries. This process is placed within the secular tendential fall in profitability, not only in the imperialist countries but also in the dominated ones. We identify four channels through which surplus value flows…
Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics
The EMU, Monetary Crises, and the Single European Currency
After a few introductory notes on the relation between production of value, productivity, economic crises, and inflation, this article submits a theory of exchange rates, revaluations, and devaluations in terms of tendential (and counter-tendential) international distribution of value both among individual countries and between the imperialist centre on the one hand and the dominated block on the other. This framework is then used to examine the …
The Fallacies of 'New Dialectics' and Value-Form Theory
Chris Arthur's approach aims at a systematic re-ordering of Marx's categories. This article argues that his approach is actually a different ordering of different categories that are positioned within a specific theoretical whole, a Hegelian re-interpretation of Marx and especially of abstract labour, which distances itself from Marx. While the debate has focused mainly on the philosophical aspects of Arthur's work, its economic features have not…
Dialectics and Temporality in Marx's Mathematical Manuscripts. 1
Logic and Dialectics in Social Science, Part I
This article develops a new dialectical method of social research. Contrary to the Hegelian tradition, it extracts this method from Marx's own work by taking a class-determined perspective of social phenomena. Contrary to formal logic it stresses social reality's dynamism by focusing on social phenomena's contradictory nature. It starts by setting out the three principles upon which dialectical logic rests. It then examines individual phenomena a…
A comment on Bonefeld's 'Abstract labour
In a recent article in this journal, Werner Bonefeld (2010) raises some criticisms of my position on abstract labour (Carchedi, 2009). Bonefeld quotes Rubin to the effect that, 'it is not possible to reconcile a physiological concept of abstract labour with the historical character of the value which it creates' (Bonefeld, 2010: 258). Bonefeld agrees, and finds an ambiguity in Marx because Marx supposedly holds both a physiological and a social/h…
Tsakalotos on Homo Economicus
Contradictions of European Integration
The central thesis of this article is that, besides the imperialism of some of the EU member countries (national imperialisms), there exists also imperialism of the EU as a whole. The thesis is argued theoretically and illustrated by considering the following: first, relations between the EU and the Central and Eastern and European Countries; second, the Common Agricultural Policy; third, the common military policy; and fourth, the Schengen Syste…
Comparative advantages, capital accumulation and socialism
The theory of international trade and prices is one of the least developed in Marxist economics. It is partly because of this that the Ricardian theory of comparative advantages has been almost unanimously accepted even by Marxists as the explanation of the mechanism behind international trade, prices and specialization. This paper exposes both the weakness of the Ricardian theory (it is based on meaningless comparisons) and the mystifications wh…
Was the Great Recession A Crisis of Profitability
Mathematics and Dialectics in Marx
From Okishio to Marx through dialectics
The law of the tendential fall in the profit rate provides the basis for a Marxist critique not only of neoliberalism but also of Keynesian anti-crises policies. This article argues that Okishio's critique of the law, far from providing the definitive proof of its inconsistency, is undermined by a logical inconsistency and is based on the replacement of Marx's notion of labour as value creating with conventional economics' notion of labour as a c…
Sapiens nihil affirmat quod non probat
This paper responds to Ernesto Screpanti's critique of Guglielmo Carchedi's approach to Marx's transformation procedure. It argues that there is no logical inconsistency in that procedure once one introduces time, rather than denying it as Marx's critics do. Further, it examines Screpanti's critique and argues that, while Marx's algebra is correct, Screpanti's own 'refutation' of Marx is invalid because it balances neither in physical nor in alge…
The Fallacies of Keynesian Policies
This article examines the effectiveness of Keynesian policies from the perspective of Marxian value theory. It starts from a sketch of the economic cycle, whose ultimate cause is identified in the decreasing production of (surplus) value following technological innovations, and argues that the strongest case for Keynesian civilian policies is not the redistribution of a (decreasing) mass of value. Rather, they should spur the production of more v…
Waste, Weapons and Crises
A Missed Opportunity
Brenner's ‘The Economics of Global Turbulence’ is a review of the world economy in the second half of the 20th century and its momentous changes. It deals with a wide range of issues and developments and is supported by a wealth of statistical and historical material. At the same time, it debunks many of the myths upon which recent (economic) history has been written. Perhaps even more importantly, it seeks the causes of crises in the laws of mot…
Introduction
Reproduction des classes sociales au niveau des rapports de production
The logic of prices as values∗
There are two major lines of criticism moved at Marx's approach to the transformation of values into prices. The circularity critique holds that constant and variable capital appear in Marx's numerical examples as inputs at their individual values and as outputs at their social, transformed value (or price of production). This critique is rejected as being foreign to Marx's methodology. Rather, the problem, when correctly formulated, is why and h…
Comparative advantages, capital accumulation and socialism
The theory of international trade and prices is one of the least developed in Marxist economics. It is partly because of this that the Ricardian theory of comparative advantages has been almost unanimously accepted even by Marxists as the explanation of the mechanism behind international trade, prices and specialization. This paper exposes both the weakness of the Ricardian theory (it is based on meaningless comparisons) and the mystifications wh…
Introduction
Comparative advantage, unequal exchange and socialism
Dialectics and Class Analysis
Frontiers of political economy
Transcending the arid formalism of present-day economic theory, Frontiers of Political Economy develops a new and accessible perspective on the world economy. Guglielmo Carchedi identifies and analyses three key features of modern capitalism: the rapidly increasing share of human labour needed for the advancement of science and technology rather than for the production of goods; the global, rather than national, nature of production, distribution…
The transformation procedure
This new volume develops a rigorous equilibrium-free political economy based on labour values. Rooted in a non-dualistic approach restoring money to its central role in a commodity economy, Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics is the fruit of extensive international collaboration reflecting a profound critical reappraisal of Marx’s theoretical work and its relation to modern economics.
Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics
Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics
The psychopathology of Walrasian Marxism, A. Freeman one system or two? the transformation of values into prices of production versus the transformation problem, T. McGlone and A. Kliman the transformation of values into prices of production - a different reading of Marx's text, A. Lamos-Martinez and A. Roriguez-Herrera money, the postulates of invariance and the transformation of Marx into Ricardo, A. Roriguez-Herrera time, money, equilibrium - …
The EMU, Monetary Crises, and the Single European Currency
After a few introductory notes on the relation between production of value, productivity, economic crises, and inflation, this article submits a theory of exchange rates, revaluations, and devaluations in terms of tendential (and counter-tendential) international distribution of value both among individual countries and between the imperialist centre on the one hand and the dominated block on the other. This framework is then used to examine the …
A Missed Opportunity
Brenner's ‘The Economics of Global Turbulence’ is a review of the world economy in the second half of the 20th century and its momentous changes. It deals with a wide range of issues and developments and is supported by a wealth of statistical and historical material. At the same time, it debunks many of the myths upon which recent (economic) history has been written. Perhaps even more importantly, it seeks the causes of crises in the laws of mot…
Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics
This new volume develops a rigorous equilibrium-free political economy based on labour values. Rooted in a non-dualistic approach restoring money to its central role in a commodity economy, Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics is the fruit of extensive international collaboration reflecting a profound critical reappraisal of Marx’s theoretical work and its relation to modern economics
Contradictions of European Integration
The central thesis of this article is that, besides the imperialism of some of the EU member countries (national imperialisms), there exists also imperialism of the EU as a whole. The thesis is argued theoretically and illustrated by considering the following: first, relations between the EU and the Central and Eastern and European Countries; second, the Common Agricultural Policy; third, the common military policy; and fourth, the Schengen Syste…
Imperialist Contradictions at the Threshold of the Third Millennium
Debates on whether capitalism has entered a new phase are not new to Marxism and have coincided with periods of deep social, economic and political transformations. Not by chance, then, has the same question emerged again after the fall and disintegration of the Soviet Union. What follows argues that this momentous event has ushered in a new phase of inter-imperialist relations. The focus will be on EU imperialism versus US imperialism. The thesi…
Communications
Waste, Weapons and Crises
On the Production of Knowledge
This article aims at contributing to the development of a Marxist theory of the production of knowledge, and in particular of natural sciences and techniques (NST), under capitalism. It rejects the double critique that the labor theory of value has become obsolete under modern capitalism and that Marx’s theoretical structure cannot accommodate mental production. The paper starts with two preliminary sections. First, some relevant aspects of diale…
Sapiens nihil affirmat quod non probat
This paper responds to Ernesto Screpanti's critique of Guglielmo Carchedi's approach to Marx's transformation procedure. It argues that there is no logical inconsistency in that procedure once one introduces time, rather than denying it as Marx's critics do. Further, it examines Screpanti's critique and argues that, while Marx's algebra is correct, Screpanti's own 'refutation' of Marx is invalid because it balances neither in physical nor in alge…
The Fallacies of Keynesian Policies
This article examines the effectiveness of Keynesian policies from the perspective of Marxian value theory. It starts from a sketch of the economic cycle, whose ultimate cause is identified in the decreasing production of (surplus) value following technological innovations, and argues that the strongest case for Keynesian civilian policies is not the redistribution of a (decreasing) mass of value. Rather, they should spur the production of more v…
Remarx
This essay examines whether the European Union, already the most powerful economic and financial rival of the United States, can develop its military arm to a level compatible with its economic and financial weight. It concludes by suggesting a parallel between European currency and the European military. The ECU started as virtual money that evolved into the Euro to become a real danger for the U.S. dollar. At this point, the nascent EU army is …
Tsakalotos on Homo Economicus
Dialectics and Temporality in Marx's Mathematical Manuscripts. 1
Logic and Dialectics in Social Science, Part II
Building upon the theory submitted in the previous issue of this journal, this article examines both similarities and differences with Engels' dialectics of nature. It argues that Engels' approach is unsuitable to reveal the specificity of society's movement towards both reproduction and supersession. It then considers the basic features of formal logic and compares them with dialectical logic. It stresses the class nature of formal logic and the…
Logic and Dialectics in Social Science, Part I
This article develops a new dialectical method of social research. Contrary to the Hegelian tradition, it extracts this method from Marx's own work by taking a class-determined perspective of social phenomena. Contrary to formal logic it stresses social reality's dynamism by focusing on social phenomena's contradictory nature. It starts by setting out the three principles upon which dialectical logic rests. It then examines individual phenomena a…
Economics (26 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (24 works) · Political science (22 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Neoclassical economics (17 works) · Epistemology (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Dialectic (12 works) · Politics (12 works)