OF  SOME  CONCEPTS  OF  MARXISM    53

But  what  connection  has  this  proposition  with
the  laws  of  capitalist  society  ?  or  what  part  does
it  play  in  the  investigation?  This  Marx  never
explicitly  states  ;  and  it  is  on  this  point  that  the
greatest  confusions  have  arisen,  and  that  the
interpreters  and  critics  have  been  most  at  a
loss.
Some  of  them  have  explained  the  law  of  labour-
value  as  an  historical  law,  peculiar  to  capitalist
society,  all  of  whose  manifestions  it  determines  ;r
others  rightly  seeing  that  the  manifestations  of
capitalist  society  are  by  no  means  determined  by
such  a  law,  but  comply  with  the  general  economic
motives  characteristic  of  the  economic  nature  of
man,  have  rejected  the  law  as  an  absurdity  at  which
Marx  arrived  by  pressing  to  its  extreme  conse
quences  an  unfortunate  concept  of  Ricardo.
