[P2P-F] Analytical marxism, John Roemer and equality of opportunity

[Michel Bauwens]

hi Apostolis,

my impression is that the last 20 years, if not more, of critical economic
(and philosophical) thinking have been to undermine rational choice theory
in all sorts of ways ...  and I personally don't know anybody that acts
purely rationally, (and if he/she did, I would see it as a sign of
pathology), if that is taken as the essence of rational theory; in my view,
it strips human agency of all kinds of crucial embeddeness in structures
and relations.

On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis <
xekoukou at gmail.com> wrote:

> I just found him. His methodology seems very similar to mine. He also has
> an interest to equality of opportunity.
>
>
> From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Marxism
>  Exploitation
>
> At the same time as Cohen was working on *Karl Marx's Theory of History*,
> American economist John Roemer was employing neoclassical economics in
> order to try to defend the Marxist concepts of exploitation<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation>
> and class <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class>. In his *General
> Theory of Exploitation and Class* (1982), Roemer employed rational choice<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_choice>
>  and game theory <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory> in order to
> demonstrate how exploitation and class relations may arise in the
> development of a market for labour. Roemer would go on to reject the idea
> that the labour theory of value<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_theory_of_value> was
> necessary for explaining exploitation and class. Value was in principle
> capable of being explained in terms of any class of commodity inputs, such
> as oil, wheat, etc., rather than being exclusively explained by embodied
> labour power. Roemer was led to the conclusion that exploitation and class
> were thus generated not in the sphere of production but of market exchange.
> Significantly, as a purely technical category, exploitation did not always
> imply a moral wrong (see section Justice<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Marxism#Justice>
>  below).
>
>
> I am unfamiliar with his beliefs. I for example believe that the ownership
> of the means of production are those that create trading routes that allow
> the market exchange to magnify wealth inequality. I am uncertain though as
> to who is the victim of exploitation. I think that dependent on the
> ocassion both the consumer and the workers could be exploited.
>
> Even If it turns out that I disagree with him, He uses rationale choice
> theory to explain things like I do.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_choice_theory
>
>
> I wonder what happened to this school of thought, most importantly why it
> hasnt replaced marxism all together. I dont think that this theory is
> plagued with revisionism, It isnt difficult to avoid determinism while you
> keep using mathematical models. it has in fact better more concrete
> foundations than before.
>
> --
>
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
>      Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
>
>
>
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