Kozo Uno

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kozo Uno (* 1897, † 1977) was a Japanese economist and is considered to be one of the most important theorists on the field of Marx's theory of value. His main work Principles of Political Economy was published in 1964. Among his scholars are Thomas T. Sekine and Makoto Itoh.

Contents 1 Thought 2 Bibliography 3 Selected Publications 3.1 Main Work 4 Literature

[edit] Thought

Uno based his work on a rigorously Hegelian reading of Marx's Capital. This led him to his well known conclusion that Marxian analysis had to be conducted at three separate levels:

• • 1. The "pure" theory of Capital, freed from the complications of history - highly abstract exercises in dialectical logic on the basic, core dynamics of capitalist economy.
  • 2. A "middle" level, which traces the general development of capitalism through distinct historical stages - mercantilism, classical liberalism and so on.
  • 3. The analysis of the 'messy' details of capitalist economy in the real world, concentrating on particular narratives rather than an overall picture.^[1]

Uno and his followers have come in for criticism from the wider Marxist tradition for insisting on this separation. Simon Clarke^[2] sees this schema as "scholastic formalism", and the second level as an arbitrary addition to provide a link between the other two, rather than an analytically necessary one. As Kincaid^[3] points out, though, Capital is primarily a logically rather than chronologically argued work, which looks at the laws of capitalist development and draws mainly supporting evidence from historical data. Thus, the separation of the Uno school represents an acknowledgement of this logical nature, and registers the key problem of how the critique can be linked to actual economic development in a way that competing schools often cannot.

1. ^ Kincaid, 2006
2. ^ Clarke, 1989; Kincaid 2006
3. ^ ibid.

[edit] Bibliography

Clarke, Simon; The Basic Theory of Capitalism: A Critique of Itoh and the Uno School in Capital and Class 37.

Kincaid, Jim; Finance, Trust and the Power of Capital, in Historical Materialism vol 14.1 (Brill, 2006)

[edit] Selected Publications

[edit] Main Work

• Uno, Kozo: Principles of Political Economy. Theory of a Purely Capitalist Society. Translated from the Japanese by Thomas T. Sekine. Brighton, Atlantic Highlands/New Jersey 1980.

[edit] Literature

• Foster, John Bellamy: MARXISM AND THE UNO SCHOOL. The Basic Theory of Capitalism: The Forms and Substance of the Capitalist Economy by Makoto Itoh.
• Pozo, Luis M.: Dialectics and Deconstruction in Political Economy.
• Saraka, Sean: Review of Albritton's „Dialectics and Deconstruction in Political Economy“.
• Simoulidis, John: Levels of Analysis and the Concept of Interest: an Unoist Approach. (PDF)