Böhm Bawerk's Criticism of Marx

[Title and Preface]: Rudolf Hilferding introduces his critique of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk's attack on Marx. He argues that bourgeois economics has largely abandoned systematic theory for eclecticism, with the exception of the psychological school, which attempts to challenge Marxism on a fundamental level following the publication of the third volume of Capital. [1 Value as an Economic Category]: Hilferding defends Marx's analysis of the commodity against Böhm-Bawerk's charge of logical circularity. He explains that Marx's abstraction from use-value is not an arbitrary 'trick' but a necessary step to uncover the social relationships between producers. Hilferding clarifies that value is an objective social category rooted in labor as the social bond of an atomized society, rather than a subjective psychological estimate. He also addresses the reduction of skilled labor to unskilled labor, arguing it is a social process where skilled labor acts as a multiple of simple labor due to the 'latent' labor embodied in training. [2 Value and Average Profit]: This section addresses the alleged contradiction between the law of value in Volume I of Capital and the prices of production in Volume III. Hilferding argues that the transformation of values into prices of production is a logical and historical modification of the law of value necessitated by the competition of capitals. He refutes Böhm-Bawerk's claim that Marx 'withdrew' his theory, explaining that while individual prices diverge from values to equalize profit rates, the total social price remains governed by total social value. He also critiques the 'component parts' theory of price (wages + profit) as a circular bourgeois illusion. [3 The Subjectivist Outlook]: Hilferding concludes by contrasting the subjectivist-individualist method of the psychological school with Marx's objectivist-social method. He argues that Böhm-Bawerk fails to understand Marx because he views labor as a subjective 'feeling of distaste' rather than an objective social necessity. Hilferding asserts that the psychological school's focus on individual motivation leads to the 'suicide of political economy,' whereas Marxism provides a law of motion for society by revealing the social relationships hidden behind economic categories. He positions the law of value as a social law that will eventually be replaced by conscious human co-operation in a socialist society. [Footnotes]: Bibliographic footnotes for the preface and introductory sections of Hilferding's text. [Notes to Chapter 1]: This segment contains the endnotes for Chapter 1, featuring a lengthy editorial note by the translators (E. & C. P.) regarding a textual discrepancy between different editions of Marx's Capital. It discusses Eduard Bernstein's critique of Marx's theory of value and the specific linguistic shift from 'aber' to 'daher' in the fourth German edition revised by Engels, exploring how this change impacts the interpretation of labor power and value materialization. [Notes to Chapters 2 and 3]: A collection of bibliographic references and brief notes for Chapters 2 and 3. It cites Marx's Capital Volume III, Sombart, and Engels' supplements to Marx's work. It also includes a reference to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations regarding the measurement of value.