Grundrisse

The ''Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie'' (''Foundations of a Critique of Political Economy'') is an unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx. The series of seven notebooks was rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for purposes of self-clarification, during the winter of 1857–8. Left aside by Marx in 1858, it remained unpublished until 1939.

Contents

The ''Grundrisse'' is very wide-ranging in subject matter and covers all six sections of Marx's critique of political economy (of which only one, the first volume of ''Das Kapital'', ever reached a final form). It is often described as the rough draft of ''Das Kapital'', although there is considerable disagreement about the exact relationship between the two texts, particularly around the issue of methodology.

Due to its breadth and its incorporation of themes from Marx's earlier writings, the ''Grundrisse'' is central to Marx's body of work. Its subject matter includes the prices of production, relations of production, distribution, exchange, alienation, value, labor, capitalism, the rise of technology and automation, pre-capitalist forms of social organization, and the preconditions for a communist revolution. Scholars have noted major differences between the Marx's earlier writings, such as ''The German Ideology'' and ''The Communist Manifesto'', and the later ones, ''Das Kapital'' and ''Grundrisse'', suggesting that Marx's views evolved, though the main themes remained the same.

As Martin Nicolaus and others have argued, the ''Grundrisse'' is crucial for understanding Marx's mature analysis of capitalism, even though, historically, it has been far less influential in the development of the various strands of Marxist theory than earlier texts such as the ''Communist Manifesto'', the '' Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'', and ''The German Ideology''. Towards the end of his life, Marx, according to Nicolaus, viewed the latter “with a scepticism bordering on rejection.” The ''Grundrisse'', on the other hand, was one of the few texts which Marx spoke of “with a tone of achievement and a sense of accomplishment.” If this is true, possibly the main reason is that the more substantive first part of ''The German Ideology'' was largely written by Friedrich Engels apostasies and word-mongering of Left- Hegelian philosophers, were written by Marx himself.

French philosopher Louis Althusser believed that Marx's thought had been misunderstood and underestimated. He condemned various interpretations of Marx—such as historicism, idealism, economism—on the grounds that they fail to realise that Marx's "science of history", historical materialism, represents a revolutionary view of social change. Althusser believed these errors to result from the notion (mistaken in his view) that Marx's entire body of work forms a coherent whole. Althusser proffered a radical " epistemological break" in Marx's thought, which can be seen by comparing the unpublished ''Grundrisse'' and ''Das Kapital''.

Dissemination

''Grundrisse'' became available in different languages over a period of time.
* 1939–41 First German edition Marx–Engels Institute, Moscow
* 1953 Second German edition , GDR
* 1958–65 Japanese translation
* 1962–78 Chinese translation
* 1967–68 French translation Roger Dangeville ( International Communist Party)
* 1968–69 Russian translation
* 1968–70 Italian translation
* 1970–71 Spanish translation
* 1971 Swedish translation
* 1971–77 Czech translation
*1972 Hungarian translation
*1972–74 Romanian translation
*1973 English translation
*1974–75 Slovak translation
*1974–78 Danish translation
*1979 Serbian/Serbo-Croatian translation
*1979 Turkish translation
*1985 Slovenian translation
*1985–87 Persian translation
*1986 Polish translation
*1986 Finnish translation
*1989–92 Greek translation
*2000 Korean translation
*2008 Portuguese translation.

The ''Grundrisses influence

The translation of the ''Grundrisse'' into English in 1973 had a profound effect on the then-emerging field of cultural studies. Stuart Hall, at that time the director of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham, led several seminars on Marx's introduction to the ''Grundrisse'', particularly "The method of political economy." These seminars culminated in the publication of a working paper titled “Marx’s Notes on Method: A ‘Reading’ of the ‘1857 Introduction.’” According to Greg Wise, in that working paper, Hall lays the groundwork for theories of overdetermination and articulation, both of which would be used in a study of mugging in the United Kingdom, Policing the Crisis.

Footnotes

Further reading

* Bottomore, Tom, ed. ''A Dictionary of Marxist Thought''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
*Choat, Simon. ''Marx's 'Grundrisse': A reader's guide.'' London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Academic. 240p. (Reader's Guides)
* Elliott, John E., ''Marx's Grundrisse: Vision of capitalism's creative destruction''. Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics. Winter 1978-79, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 148-169.
* Harvey, David. ''The Limits of Capital''. London: Verso, 2006.
* Lallier, Adalbert G. ''The Economics of Marx’s Grundrisse: an Annotated Summary''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
* Mandel, Ernest. ''The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx: 1843 to Capital.'' London: Verso, 2015.
* Mandel, Ernest. ''Marxist Economic Theory''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.
* Negri, Antonio. ''Marx Beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse''. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1989.
* Postone, Moishe. ''Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory.'' Cambridge ngland Cambridge University Press, 1993.
* Roman Rosdolsky. ''The Making of Marx's Capital''. London: Pluto Press, 1977.
* Tronti, Mario. ''Workers and Capital''. London: Verso, 2019.
* Uchida, Hiroshi. ''Marx's ''Grundrisse'' and Hegel's ''Logic.'' ''Terrell Carber, ed. London: Routledge, 2015.

See also

* '' Unto This Last''

External links

Complete text (English html format)
Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/

{{Authority control
1941 non-fiction books
Books by Karl Marx
Philosophy books
Unfinished books
Critique of political economy
Marxian critique of political economy