num_pages: 42
description: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV THE ERROR IN THE MARXIAN SYSTEMITS ORIGIN AND RAMIFICATIONS HE evidence that an author has contra dieted himself may be a necessary stage but it cannot be the ultimate aim of a fruitful and well directed criticism. To be aware that there is a defect in a system which may possibly be accidental only and peculiar to the author requires a comparatively low degree of critical intelligence. A firmly rooted system can only be effectually overthrown by discovering with absolute precision the point at which the error made its way into the system and the manner in which it spread and branched itself out. As opponents we ought to study the beginning the development and the final issue of the error which culminates in self-contra Section I diction as thoroughly I might almost say as sympathetically as we would study the connection of a system with which we were in agreement. Owing to many peculiar circumstances the question of self-contradiction has in the case of Marx gained a more than ordinary importance and consequently I have devoted a considerable space to it. But in dealing with a thinker so important and influential as Marx it is incumbent upon us to apply ourselves to the second and in this case as I think the actually more fruitful and instructive part of the criticism. We will begin with a question which will carry us straight to the main point: In what way did Marx arrive at the fundamental proposition of his teaching--the proposition that all value depends solely upon incorporated quantities of labour? That this proposition is not a self-evident axiom needing no proof is beyond doubt. Value and effort as I have stated at length in another place are not ideas so intimately connected that one is forced immediately to adopt the ...
language: English
title: Karl Marx and the Close of His System; A Criticism
publisher: General Books