| This question <30|30> overall <34|36> Hans: <29|43>. |
| Question 79: Shouldn't Marx also have included produced means of production in addition to nature and labor? |
| [35] Hans: A Reductionist View of Production Veblen [30] says it is not necessary to include produced means of production because they can themselves be reduced to labor and nature. |
| This kind of argument is called “reductionist”. Reductionist arguments are not always wrong, but they are sometimes wrong. One cannot reduce everything to its elements. Sometimes one has to let things stand as independent causal agents. Means of production are usually not produced using nature and labor, but their production involves other means of production, often more powerful means of production than those producing the final product. |
| In my view, Question 79 is not a rhetorical question, but I consider the right answer to be “yes.” Marx should have mentioned at this point that production is always also dependent on pre-existing means of production. |
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