[WikiEN-l] Test case: policing content

Fri Mar 25 20:39:44 UTC 2005

Prof. Rubenstein wrote two things which I'd like to comment on:

> ... "private ownership of the means of production" is the
> "Marxist" definition of capitalism, and now insists that
> I provide my own "marxist" definition!  This list serve
> is not the place for this discussion, which has already
> occurred on the  Capitalism talk pages.  Suffice to say,
> "private ownership of the means of production" is simply
> not, in no way, the marxist or "a" marxist definition of
> capitalism.

Googling the quoted definition easily shows that several sources
regard "private ownership of the means of production" as an
essential part of the "Marxist definition" of Capitalism.

And this mailing list *is* the right place to bring something
like this up. I, for one, would never have noticed this issue if
it hadn't been brought up here.

However, it's tricky, because the exact quoted phrase is not
used by a Marxist writer, but by an American college professor
PARAPHRASING the Marxists. The first reference below is some
lecture notes for a college course. It interprets "individual
ownership" as "private ownership of the means of production".

So the source for this would go something like:

* Professor Windbag of Westwind University at Turbyne, Indiana,
interprets Marxist writings as assailing "private ownership of
the means of production" as one of the chief evils of
Capitalism.

This provides the source: the ol' Windbag.

This clarifies that it's HIS interpretation.

http://faculty.washington.edu/wtalbott/phil332/trmarxII.htm

Oh, and his name is 

WILLIAM J. TALBOTT

Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Box 353350
University of Washington

Ed Poor
(That wasn't so hard, now, was it? ;-)