Jonathan Nitzan criticises Marx for “dialectical determinism” which “perhaps explains why many of his predictions failed to materialize.”
1.
Very interesting posts, Rowan, but I think their focus is different than mine in the lead post. Notice that I wrote that
Marx’s dialectical determinism was simply too demanding for his narrow ‘economic’ argument
In other words, in my view the problem with Marx’s method is not his quest for dialectical determinism, but his basing of dialectical determinism on narrow economic arguments.
2.
The motivation for this post was the question of alienation, which Marx anchored in the commodification of labour. CasP research suggests that alienation — the estrangement of human beings from their own actions and creations — is an aspect of power writ large, and that the commodification of labour is only one aspect of this power. If this claim is valid, it makes Marx’s economic focus too narrow and therefore potentially misleading in its derivations.
3.
And, yes, many of Marx’s expectations — the falling tendency of the rate of profit, immiseration, deeper and deeper crises, the cascading collapse of capitalism, among others — are yet to come true. Hanging these delays on ‘countervailing forces’ is reminiscent of neoclassical ‘distortions’. A theory that claims to grapple with the fate of humanity should include any meaningful countervailing force in its core. If you think of finance, politics, culture, international relations, etc. as mere derivatives of — or worse still, external auxiliaries/shocks to — the labour process, don’t be surprised that your economically-based predictions end up being off.
I hope these comments help clarify my point.