Research On Marx's Theory Of Relative Surplus Value

The theory of surplus value is one of the two great discoveries of Karl Marx's life,the foundation and pillar of Marx's economic theory,and Marx's historical achievement of epoch making.The theory of Relative surplus value is an important part of Marx's theory of surplus value,which contains a very rich content.According to Marx's view,the extension of the work day length is the means of the production of absolute surplus value;in the condition of the unchanged overall length of the working days,the production of relative surplus value increases the surplus value both by the changing proportion between the necessary labor time and the remaining labor time,namely,by the shorting necessary labor time and the relatively extended surplus labor time.For a long time,the interpreting about the two ways of the production of surplus value in academic circles has been limited in the different method of exploitation.The production of absolute surplus value is mainly used in the early stage of capitalist development,in the course of which capitalists extract workers sweat by means of simple expansion length of working time that there is no technical content,so the opposition between the workers and capitalists is abundantly clear.Due to the limited nature of working days themselves,the unremitting struggle of the working class to shorten the working days,and the concept of the people having constantly popular,the production of the absolute surplus value has market space becoming smaller and smaller,so that capitalists have to try hard to find more covert,more productive means of exploitation,but,because the pace of capital proliferation will not stop,the method of the relative surplus value production came into being,along with all the advanced technology and management methods to improve labor productivity.Needless to say,this traditional interpretation from the capitalist relationship perspective to workers exploitation,profoundly reveals the essential characteristics of the relative surplus value production to provide us a clear logic line of reasoning in order to our in-depth understanding of both the opposition between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie class as well as the socialist movement.However,Marx's theory of relative surplus value is not limited to this.When the dominant logic of the exposing relationship of exploitation can be fully presented,the implicit logic to understanding of the relationship between human and technology is quietly born and become mature.In China the vast majority of scholars(including many scholars specializing in the study)have carried out Systematically researching for this,in other words,the implicit logic in the theory of relative surplus value has not been excavated wholly,the obscured content has not displayed;when even Karx himself,the founder of the theory of relative surplus value,comprehensively and deeply had an analysis concerning the rich connotation of relative surplus value theory,he is focus on revealing a kind of new means by which capitalists exploit the workers,which is more subtle,more cruel to extract surplus value,but the hidden information of the relationship between human beings and technology was temporarily “obscured” and “suspended”.The implicit logic,however,still exists and plays a role objectively.Our task is to have that part of the very important content hidden in Marx's thought manifest,which can be counted as a little contribution to Marxist text research.Engels,as a contributor of the theory of relative surplus value and staunch defender,uphold Marx's analysis of the path,mainly from the practical need of the means of exploitation and class antagonisms,understood and communicated the theory of relative surplus value,but the connotation of the relationship between human beings and technology is still dormant in the depth of relative surplus value theory.The other individual parties within Marxist lineage relative surplus were involved in the connotation veiled in the theory of relative surplus,and began to carry out some rich successful exploration and identifying,but never really opened the mysterious veil which shrouded the theory of relative surplus value,let alone to do a comprehensive and systematic exposition.To follow the lineage of Marxism,to ferret out the looming thought flash point,and to link it with logic track of the cross,have the shadowed theoretical connotation more and more clearly presented in front of us.After Marx,facing the complicated phenomenon of western culture(especially the relationship between people and technology),western social and ideological trends have reviewed and interpreted the theory of relative surplus value from different perspectives,which can be described as school buildings,discourse scene,and different point of view,and which at the theoretical level have made some achievements,in practice also have help to solve some social problems,but due to the lack of the guidance of the Marxist theory,various thoughts failed to give scientific explanation and answer to the modern western culture.Only starting from Marx relative surplus value theory,can we truly provide scientific understanding dimensions and consciously practice point,and eloquently prove that Marxist theory has eternal youth and always full of the spirit of the times.Currently there still is the cognitive error on the problem that whether the theory of relative surplus value is at preset in contemporary China;it is different opinion that whether relative surplus value is at present in the socialist market economy.To a certain extent,if this problem is not fundamentally solved,then it is difficult to enrich and develop Marx's economic theory,but also to promote the deep development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.From the two aspects of the theory and practice,we demonstrate that the theory of relative surplus value is at present in contemporary China,it will make the theory of relative surplus value in the field of socialism with Chinese characteristics more clear and more recognition in practice.The innovation of this research can be summarized in four words: “demask”,“identification”,“culture”,“presence”.The relation between human and technology is the content and the dimension of the relative surplus value theory,which is not included in the mapping scope of Marx's attention,and thus is in the state of “shelter”.The primary task of this study is to demask,to tap fully the long obscured the connotation of the theory of relative surplus value,and to highlight the implicit logic of Marx's theory of relative surplus value.From the different angle of view and the layer face,the various factions within Marxist lineage have been their own explanation and discussion about the theory of relative surplus value,have put forward quite a novel ideas,some of which have been applied to analyse capitalist economic and social status and trend,and some even will been put creatively into the practice of socialist economy.Through analysing the interpretation and extension about Marx's theory of relative surplus value in Marxist pedigree(especially western Marxism),we can find out that whether they find or develop or distort the rich content of Marx's theory of relative surplus value.When Marx's theory of relative surplus value was founded at the beginning,it had the important function of the understanding and criticizing western culture;and the relationship between human and technology is the most fundamental and powerful theoretical support.This study is based on the implicit logic of Marx's theory of relative surplus value theory and clarifies a new line of understanding of the western culture after Marx.The stage of social development about human independence on the basis of the dependence of thing is to create all of the necessary condition for the communist society that makes the human society is towards human's free and full development;Marx's theory of relative surplus value reveals the general economic law about this stage,so capitalist society is not the only one being relative surplus value.By demonstrating that there is relative surplus value in China's socialist market economy,by clarifying about the fog and vague understanding in relative surplus value theory,and by applying the theory of relative surplus value to analysing the new situation and new problems in the course of the contemporary China's economic and social development,we thus better play the guidance of Marxism and the its promoting role in the practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.Relying on the text of Marxism,the study adheres to the principle of the unity of history and logic,regards Marxist text interpretation as theoretical purport,and investigates systematically and deeply the rich connotation and contemporary significance about the theory of Marx's relative surplus in order to strive to present completely the true appearance of the theory of relative surplus and highlight Marxist reality concern of contemporary social life.In Introduction(Chapter I),the author expound the reasons of investigating Marx's theory of relative surplus value;evaluate the domestic and foreign research status;and put forward the basic line,main method and innovations of this research.In Chapter II the author mainly discusses the ideological origin of the theory of relative surplus value: there are scattered economic ideas in ancient Greece and Rome,but they involve in the relationship between commodity and currency,and touch unintentionally the basic connotation of the surplus value and even relative surplus value;in the middle ages(during which thought and culture are detained),some knowledge of theological thinkers in the way of practical economic problems was served for religious theology.In Chapter III and Chapter IV,the author deeply investigate Marxist classical texts in different periods,concretely speaking,from this dimension of the dialectical relationship between the historical materialism and relative surplus value theory,from the dimension of historical evolution about the way of social organization of individual labor,from this dimension of the relationship between human and technology,the author systematically exposits the whole process of Marx's breeding,sprouting,establishing,and developing the theory of relative surplus value;in the meantime,also discusses the categories of commodity,capital,and currency and other important category,focusing and ending points are in the care of the theory of relative surplus value,and focus on mining and highlighting the relationship between the people and technology contained in the theory of relative surplus value.In Chapter V the author discusses the interpretation that various factions within Marxist genealogy make about Marx's theory of relative surplus value,focusing on examining the representative figures,main schools,and core ideas,and tries to explore the view of various factions about the implicit logic of the theory of the relative surplus value;and review the gain and loss of the theory concerned,and then tries to expand and deepen the understanding of the theory of relative surplus value.In Chapter VI,on the basis of Marx's theory of relative surplus value,the author newly interprets the global Capitalism,which reveals that the expansion of capital to create the world market is the inherent driving force of the globalization process,that technological progress and the transformation of results play a huge leverage,that the "technological determinism" thus breeds and spreads,and that the relationship between human and technology has caused deep concern;from the perspective of text,surplus value philosophy,and philosophy of technology,Marx's theory of relative surplus value is the important theoretical line by which we understand the whole western culture(especially the relationship between people and technology)after 1930 s and even after Marx.In Chapter VII,when discussing that the theory of the relative surplus value is at present in contemporary China,the author has clarified that there is surplus value in Chinese socialist society through the deep analysis of the nature of the category of surplus value and the relationship with the exploitation;according to the author,in the process of leading the socialist revolution,construction,and reform,our party vigorously promotes the theoretical innovation,practical innovation,and system innovation,gradually deepens understanding of socialist market economy,science and technology and so on,and continues to eliminate the ideological barrier in order to make the theory of relative surplus value present and useful.In the concluding remarks(Chapter VIII),the author has deeply comments on the innovation point and the focus of this dissertation,has outlook some difficulties and some problems to be investigated further,and has emphasized that the road of the socialism with Chinese characteristics is a only correct way,that China is full of confidence to occupy the commanding height of the socialist theory and practice in the world,so we must strengthen the confidence on the road,theory,and system of the socialism with Chinese characteristics,must deepen the understanding and recognizing of Chinese dream,and must actively use Marx's theory of relative surplus value to guide and promote the development of economic society to a higher level.By the analysis and discussion of eight chapters,this research makes the logical panorama about Marx's theory of relative surplus value more clearly demonstrated.Before Marx,from different aspects of relative surplus value,those relevant explorations of some thinkers in their own respective historical background,gradually touched basic connotation of the relative surplus value,so that they accumulated a wealth of valuable ideas for Marx's scientific criticism.On the basis of previous studies(especially on the basis of the critical discard about the classical political economics),Marx founded the scientific theory of relative surplus value.In the view of the hidden way in the production of surplus value,technology and management become the wings of crazy expansion of capital,and the exploitation and squeezing of the workers is increasing.Potential approach is the relationship between human and technology,that is to say,the process of the gradual establishment of the technology to control human beings under the capitalist mode of production and the growing loss of human subjectivity.Various factions within Marxist lineage more or less,or deep or shallow,visibly or invisibly deal with the covered content in the theory of relative surplus value,but were not to dig the canvass,also did not form a consistent theoretical point of view.In western Marxism there,the mode of interpreting Marxism by Soviet model is completely discarded.Although there are no small differences in the views of the representatives of Western Marxism,even being quite different,but the interpretation of the relationship between human and technical is surprisingly consistent;the technical reason,the alienation of human beings,and the colonization on the world of life and other words are often seen.Lukacs and Rosdolsky made a very useful exploration for the research of Marx's theory of relative surplus value on the influence of western culture since 1929.This research focuses on continuing to move forward the exploration of Lukacs,Rosdolsky,et al in order to understand the western culture after Marx to provide a new way of thinking,new dimensions.We should rationally recognize Marx's theory of relative surplus value in the presence of contemporary China,should pay attention to play a role in the civilization of capital,should enhance the ability to control the capital in a variety of complex forces,and should thus better reflect the superiority of the socialist system so that we can create some conditions of a more generous reality to realize the Chinese dream,to create the world destiny community,and to achieve free and comprehensive development of human beings.