Reading Notes on Kawakami Hajime's[1] *Fundamental Theory of Marxist Economics*, Translated by Li Da and Others

(1939)

Fundamental Theory of Marxist Economics

Part One

The Philosophical Foundations of Marxism

Chapter One: Materialism

II. Materialism and Atheism as the Philosophy of the Oppressed Classes

However, on the other hand, when the historically oppressed classes, having waged struggles against the ruling classes, acquire new strength, in such an era, idealism and the religion inseparably bound up with it will, to a certain extent, be toppled from the hands of the classes that have used them as spiritual fetters. At such a time, the useful spiritual weapon for destroying that old faith is, of course, materialism. Hence, whenever the oppressed classes are about to gain new strength in a "transformative era," materialism always flourishes. — Broadly speaking, the rise and fall of materialism throughout past history (the history of class society) can only be understood from this perspective, and absolutely cannot be understood from materialism itself. The reason why those histories of philosophy that separate the general ideas of famous philosophers from their social roots and merely narrate them chronologically generally cannot explain the inevitability of the rise and fall of materialism and idealism lies precisely here. However, there is no need for further discussion on this matter here. [p. 9]

IV. French Materialism and Atheism in the 18th Century

(1) Mellier[1]

Deborin once said this about English[2] Deism[3]: "Deism, however lukewarm its nature and however much it contained internal contradictions, nevertheless made a considerable contribution in advocating freedom of human thought and scientific research. Yet, for those who upheld and propagated this worldview in their writings in the struggle for this scientific worldview, great danger was often incurred. This we cannot but explain. The 'militant church' did not merely use words to shelter harmful doctrines; it also employed real means, that is to say, they would tear out the tongues of those who dared to criticize religious dogmas, or throw them onto faggots and burn them to death. ... Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that most freethinkers concealed their true views." [p. 21]

(2) Durbach[1]

... At present, the French bourgeoisie has already become the pillar of world reaction. The revolutionary tradition under the banner of materialism and atheism has long since shifted to the proletariat. Just as the liberation under the banner of the proletariat carries the significance of the complete sublation of class society, their spiritual liberation is linked with the complete liquidation of religious and idealist prejudices. [pp. 33–34]


X. Relative Truth and Absolute Truth

In a recently seen work, *Lenin and Philosophy* by Lupol, the treatment of the same question is as follows.

... Everything is relative, and thus relativity itself is also relative; therefore, the relation or distinction between the relative and the absolute is also only relative, and absolutely not absolute. Consequently, in a certain sense, we can also speak of the absolute. When the perspective of relativity is truly carried through to the end, it inevitably leads to the negation of this very perspective... [pp. 91–92]

II. The Essence of Dialectical Thinking

... In short, the so-called requirement of dialectical comprehensiveness is nothing other than the requirement of truthfulness toward real things. The proposition "Truth (truth is always concrete)"[2] arises from this.

... The phrase "in detail" ultimately means "comprehensive." Of course, if we merely abstract one aspect, or one attribute, or one characteristic of an object, we can also draw some kind of conclusion. But in reality, the existence of aspects directly opposed to this conclusion (sometimes many such facts exist) is also possible. For this reason, observation relying on one aspect is extremely dangerous. The conclusion drawn from one-sided observation merely represents one aspect of the truth. Therefore, "inquiry must appropriate the material in detail"—this statement by Marx is ultimately nothing other than expressing, in different words, the dialectical requirement of comprehensive inquiry. [p. 118]


V. Grasping Things in the Process of Development (in the Flow of Motion)

(4) Transformation from Quantity to Quality


... The so-called purely quantitative change carries the meaning of a change in the quantity of things possessing the same quality. But the fact that purely quantitative change can give rise to qualitative differences ultimately means nothing other than that things possessing the same quality, under certain conditions, reproduce aspects of differing quality. Simple money and capital are opposites, but money that yields surplus value becomes capital. From this point alone, money and capital can also be said to be things of the same quality. [p. 199]

(5) Negation of the Negation

... This mode of production presupposes the dispersal of land and other means of production. Just as it excludes the concentration of these means of production, under this mode of production, cooperation, the division of labor within the same production process, the social domination and regulation of nature, and the free development of the social productive forces are also excluded. It is compatible only with the narrow, primordial limits of production and society. ... [p. 201]

Furthermore, the example of the barley grain cited by Engels in *Anti-Dühring* has been quoted by many writers. I also quote this example here below.

"... Countless barley grains can be ground, boiled, brewed, consumed. But if such a barley grain finds normal conditions and falls upon suitable soil, at that time, under the influence of heat and moisture, it undergoes a specific change; it germinates. The barley grain itself disappears, is negated, and the plant arising from it—the negation of the barley grain—takes its place. But what is the normal life of this plant? It grows, blossoms, bears fruit, and finally produces many barley grains again. Once these grains ripen, the stalk dies, and the stalk itself is negated. As a result of this negation of the negation, we obtain the original barley grain again, but not as a single grain, but tenfold, twentyfold, thirtyfold. The changes occurring in cereal species are very slow, so that today's barley grain is almost identical to that of a hundred years ago. ..." (*Anti-Dühring*, German edition, p. 138.) [pp. 205–206]

Furthermore, in many instances, the result produced by the negation of the negation often yields a marked difference from the original thing—this fact should be discussed in turn. For example, in the development process of commodity circulation, simple commodity negates itself and becomes money, and simple money negates itself and becomes capital. At this time, capital originally does not revert to the thing that is simple commodity. Also, for example, under conditions of gradually rising temperature, ice is negated and becomes water, and water is further negated[1] and becomes vapor. At this time, the product of the negation of the negation, i.e., vapor, is also a thing extremely different in quality from the initial starting point, i.e., ice. In short, everything must be learned from facts. [p. 211]

Chapter Three: Historical Materialism (The Materialist Conception of History)

III. The Dialectical Relationship between Productive Forces and Relations of Production

... "A spider conducts operations resembling those of a weaver, and a bee, in the construction of its honeycomb, puts many a human architect to shame. Yet the most incompetent architect from the outset surpasses the most ingenious bee, in that before building the honeycomb with beeswax,[1] he has already built it in his head. ..." (*Capital*, Vol. I, Kautsky edition, pp. 333–334) ... [p. 240]


V. Class Distinctions in Society and Their Political Structure (Political and Legal Superstructure)


Issues of the Sino-Japanese War, the Anti-Japanese National United Front, the form of the united front, i.e., the question of the Nationalist national alliance, the strategic questions of the Eighth Route Army, various tendencies among new and old Party members in the Party's development, cadre policy issues.

"... — The most important method for studying this question from a scientific standpoint — is not to forget the fundamental historical connections, that is, to observe all questions from the perspective of how a certain phenomenon arose historically, what major stages that phenomenon passed through in its development, and further, from this developmental perspective, to observe what that thing is now. ..." [p. 271]

VI. The Ideal Superstructure — Social Consciousness Reflects Social Being

Adoratsky[1], in his *Theory and Practice of Leninism*, discussed this point, saying: "Thought is determined by being. ... What we must pay special attention to is that we must not confuse real social relations with the social relations imagined in the human mind (i.e., human ideas); we should investigate the real aspects of social relations. When we examine the differences between these two kinds of facts step by step through the various stages of historical development, even when specific social relations are mature and real, human consciousness of those relations may still be lacking; and from the fact that individuals do not yet understand in detail everything they themselves do, this is not difficult to understand. First, relations mature, then consciousness arises, and then humans understand the relations. ..."

VII. The Overall Process of Social Transformation — Class Struggle — Economy and Power — The Leap from the Realm of Necessity to the Realm of Freedom

... In this era, all means of production are transferred under the common management of society; it becomes necessary and possible to regulate social production according to human plans, and to regulate the productive forces and relations of production according to human consciousness. But once the means of production are transferred under the common management of society, the class that exploits others can no longer exist, and consequently, the class that is exploited by others also ceases to exist, and the opposition between classes in general is abolished. Moreover, once the productive forces and relations of production are regulated according to human consciousness, the natural-historical process of "self-motion" caused by the contradictions and conflicts between the two is sublated. In a word, the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production, which has been the driving force throughout all past history, and the struggle between the ruling class and the oppressed class, which is its human manifestation, both vanish. "Thus the prehistory of human society concludes with the capitalist social formation." The era we are now in is precisely the eve of beginning to write the first page of the true history of humanity—which, in relation to prehistory, may be called history proper. ... [p. 301]

Part Two

The Starting Point of Marxist Economics

Chapter One: The Commodity

I. The Commodity as the Starting Point of Research

VI. The Dialectical Cycle between the Starting Point and the Point of Arrival

... It is only when individual commodities no longer appear as individual commodities but "appear as the ideal part of total production" that the commodity as the most abstract category arises. Precisely because of this, the commodity or commodity exchange as an abstract category "can absolutely not exist except as an abstract, one-sided relation of an already fully developed, concrete living[1] totality of capitalist society." ... Not only do individual commodities, taken together, constitute the wealth of the social whole, but each individual commodity, in that it can be exchanged with any of the elements constituting the wealth of the social whole, also possesses the qualification of representing the wealth of the social whole. Indeed, it is at the point of possessing that qualification that the product of labor becomes a commodity; therefore, it "appears not only as the real part of total production but also as its ideal part." In other words, money is latent in each individual commodity. ...

... Just as we do not discover the egg by analyzing the chicken with thought, but rather, from the very beginning, investigate both the chicken and the egg as determined things, similarly, the most concrete point of arrival and the most abstract starting point both manifest themselves as immediate things in reality, and the abstract manifests itself as one aspect of the concrete object itself, which possesses rich multifacetedness, in reality. Because of this, these two things are simultaneously determined for us from the outset. In that both are immediately determined, neither is dependent on the other. [pp. 87–89]


II. The Two Elements of the Commodity Obtained by Analyzing It — Use-Value and Value

I. Introduction


Analysis, in Lenin's words, is "the decomposition of a unified thing" in order to "recognize the contradictory constituent elements within the unity." However, unlike the analysis of natural phenomena, which cannot be seen with the naked eye, "in the analysis of economic forms, neither microscopes nor chemical reagents are of use. The force of abstraction must replace both." ... [p. 95]

IV. The Commodity as Value — Part Two: The Magnitude of Value


The most important thing in the relations of production of capitalist society is the relation between the capitalist class and the wage-laborer class. Economically—as we may later observe in detail—it depends on the buying and selling of labor power, and therefore also depends on the value of labor power, and still depends on the productive force of labor.[1] [p. 148]