| In the century and a half since the publication of Das Kapital,the research of the method of Das Kapital has always been one of the focuses of many scholars from both domestic and foreign countries.Hitherto,many theorists have gained fruitful theoretical results on this subject,which undoubtedly provide us with many possibilities to understand the method applied in the writing of Das Kapital by Marx,but the misinterpretation of the methods of Das Kapital have also existed all the time.The French Marxist anthropologist Maurice Godelier,reread Das Kapital from the standpoint of structuralism in his book Rationality and Irrationality in economics,and put forward his understanding of the method of Das Kapital.In his view,the method applied in Das Kapital by Marx is actually the method of constructing scientific theory,the method of exposition that enables the theoretical results to be narrated in a reasonable form.From the perspective of epistemology,this method can provide epistemology tools for the construction of a ‘diachronic structural science’,so as to scientifically understand and grasp the structure of society and the historical changes of society.Godelier′s overall understanding of the method of Das Kapital is a method of exposition that ‘from the abstract to the concrete’,a method by which Marx presents the results of his political economy in Das Kapital.Godelier divided ‘from the abstract to the concrete’ into two methods,one is ‘the hypothetico-deductive method’,and the other is ‘the dialectical method’.And he thinks that only through the simultaneous use of these two menthods can ‘from the abstract to the concrete’.It can be said that Godelier in the specific analysis of the method of Das Kapital is to solve the problem of how to ‘from the abstract to the concrete’.In Godelier′s specific study of the method of Das Kapital,the basic views with personal characteristics can be summarized as follows: First,about the concept of ‘structure’,Godelier believes that the ‘real structure’ of socio-historical life is hidden behind the visible relationship,it is realistic,not purely abstract,therefore,‘the hypothetico-deductive method’ that start from ‘the abstrct’ does not start form purely abstract assumptions,what’s more,the logical deduction process to start with is not purely abstract form of logical deduction;second,about contradiction,Godelier divided the contradiction into two kinds of contradiction,one is the contradiction within the structure,the other is the contradiction between the structures,Godelier believes that the contradiction between structures is the fundamental cause of the overall change of the system.Thirdly,Godelier treats productivity and production relations as two structures,separating production relations from productivity and redefining the concept of "foundations" as encompassing both the structure of productivity and the structure of production relations,and the combination of productivity and production relations constituting the concept of "modes of production",so that a particular social relation cannot simply be regarded as a "superstructure" and that a particular social relation may play the role of a "production relation" in a given society.Godelier′s creative approach to introducing the structural approach to Marxist theory further stimulated his reflection on the relationship between infrastructure and superstructure,redefined the concept of infrastructure and superstructure,and made some contributions to the study of Marxist theory.At the same time,in his move towards a ‘structural science of diachrony’,he criticized Structuralism,Functionalism and ‘Orthodox’ Marxism,arguing that none of these three social theories was sufficient to scientifically understand and grasp the structure of society and the historical changes of society.However,it’s a pity that little attention has been paid to Godelier’s contributions to the study of Marxist theory in the field of philosophy,and the few articles about Godelier are mostly confined to the perspective of anthropology.To a certain extent,it underestimates the value of Godelier’s academic research.Based on Rationality and Irrationality in economics,this paper attempts to return to Godelier’s theoretical exploration process of rereading Das Kapital and present his findings on the study of the method of Das Kapital. |
