Episode 113: Marx’s Critique of Darimon in the Grundrisse, Part 2

Andrew and special guest-interviewer Francisco discuss Andrew’s new article, “Marx’s Critique of Darimon in the Grundrisse: On Indirectly Social Labor and the ‘Impossible Tasks’ of Labor Money.” In 1856, Alfred Darimon, a prominent follower of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, published a book on monetary reform. The first 60 pages of Marx’s Grundrisse, written a year later, criticize the book as well as Proudhonist and related ideas about monetary reform in general.

In Part 2 of the interview, Francisco and Andrew discuss a couple of the main themes in Marx’s critique of Darimon—labor money and directly vs. indirectly social labor. The critique of Darimon is the text in which Marx first worked out the distinction between directly and indirectly social labor. (In Part 1, they discussed how the critique of Darimon relates to Marx’s other critiques of Proudhonism, why he found Proudhonism so concerning, his charge that Proudhonists “want the impossible,” and his criticisms of Darimon’s proposal to eliminate monetary crises by abolishing the metallic standard.)

Plus current-events segment: “Bibi, Go Bye-Bye”—regular cohosts Gabriel and Andrew discuss Senator Chuck Schumer’s March 14 speech on Israel/Palestine.

 
Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Gabriel Donnelly and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI. We welcome and encourage listeners’ comments, posted on this episode’s page.

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