Kozo Uno
Kozo Uno (Japanese宇 野 弘 蔵, Kozo Uno, born November 12, 1897 in Kurashiki, † 22 February 1977 Kugenuma, Fujisawa ) was a Japanese Marxist economist. He is considered one of the most important theorists on the field of Marx's theory of value. His major work, Principles of Political Economy was published in 1964. Among his most important students count Thomas T. Sekine and Makoto Itoh.
Life
After studying at the University of Tokyo ( 1918-1921 ) to Uno held for two years in Berlin (1921 /22). In 1924 he became a professor at Tohoku University for economic policy. In the years 1934-1939 he was suspended due to membership of a progressive group of professors pursuits. From 1944 to 1947 he was a staff member in the Mitsubishi Institute of Economics, 1947-1958 Professor at the University of Tokyo. From 1949 to 1952 he served as director of the local Department of Social Sciences. Since 1958 he was a professor at Hosei University and the Rissho University in Tokyo.
Work
After his return from Germany in 1922 Uno sat in his first works with Hilferding's Finance Capital and Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism apart; he made two works known in Japan. His major contribution to Marxist debate in Japan was the " stage" theory, with which he wanted to specify the method of acquisition and representation of capitalism. Uno was of the opinion that the subject of research in political economy divided into three stages: conceptual clarification and presentation of the laws of motion of capital, the historical development of capitalism and the empirical analysis of contemporary capitalism.
Although Uno contributed significantly to the spread of Marx 's Capital in Japan, his goal was to rid it of " inconsistencies " and to concentrate on a pure labor theory of value. In his own work Uno shares the principles of economy, in contrast to Marx in the three spheres of circulation, production and distribution a. He becomes independent circulation and assigns the value theory of the production process of capital, since they, due to the transformation of labor power into a commodity get their full effect only in capitalism. The main contradiction of the capitalist mode of production is after Uno is that human labor is a commodity, although they can not be produced like any other commodity from capital. In his theory of crisis Uno looks unlike Marx, especially in the crisis, the possibility of capital to overcome the decline in production due to the non-renewable Arbeitskräftepoteials by increasing the composition of capital.
Effect
Uno was the founder of the unfolding in the 1950s and 1960s "Uno - school", an economic school of thought, which attracted numerous interested in Marxist theorizing intellectuals. Kozo Uno and his school were for many young intellectuals in Japan a compelling theoretical alternative to dogmatic Marxism -Leninism, of which Uno deposed consistently. So he stood the doctrine of dialectical materialism towards critical and measured historical materialism - in theory the understanding of JCP -affiliated Japanese intellectuals played a great scientific importance - only the status of a " ideological " hypothesis at. He also broke with the postulate of the " unity of theory and practice " and laid emphasis on the separation of theory formation process of a direct political activity. Uno saw these reasons, in its self is not a Marxist, but turned out theoretically in the tradition of Marx, he awarded his critique of political economy a "scientific" character.
His views, however, remained innermarxistisch not without criticism. In particular (among others of his Japanese critics Samezo Kuruma ) it was kept a distance from the class character of political economy. Furthermore, it was criticized that the analysis of contemporary capitalism 'm too short in his contributions.
Publications and expenses ( selection)
- Kozo Uno: Principles of Political Economy. Theory of a Purely Capitalist Society. Translated from the Japanese by Thomas T. Sekine. Brighton, Atlantic Highlands / New Jersey in 1980.