This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth reappraisal of the relation between Marxâs economic theory in Capital and Hegelâs Logic by leading Marxian economists and philosophers from around the world. The subjects dealt with include: systematic dialectics, the New Dialectics, materialism vs. idealism, Marxâs âinversionâ of Hegel, Hegelâs Concept logic (universality-particularity-singularity), Hegelâs Essence logic (essence-appearance), Marxâs levels of abstraction of capital in general and competition, and capital as Hegelian Subject.
The papers in this volume were originally presented at the 22nd annual meeting of the International Symposium on Marxian Theory at Mount Holyoke College in August 2011. The twelve authors are divided between seven economists and five philosophers, as is fitting for the interdisciplinary subject of the relation between Marxâs economic theory and Hegelâs logic.
Contributors are: Chris Arthur, Riccardo Bellofiore, Roberto Fineschi, Gastón Caligaris, Igor Hanzel, Juan Iñigo Carrera, Mark Meaney, Fred Moseley, Patrick Murray, Geert Reuten, Mario Robles, Tony Smith, and Guido Starosta.
Fred Moseley is Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts, USA). He is the author of The Falling Rate of Profit in the Postwar United States Economy (1992) and editor of Marxâs Logical Method: A Reappraisal (1993), New Investigations of Marxâs Method (1997), Heterodox Economic Theories: True or False? (1995), and Marxâs Theory of Money: Modern Reappraisals. He has also published numerous articles on Marxian economics in scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, and the Review of Radical Political Economics.
Tony Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University. His books include The Logic of Marxâs Capital: Replies to Hegelian Criticisms (1990), Technology and Capital in the Age of Lean Production (2000), and Globalisation: A Systematic Marxian Account (2005).
âThe older debates about Marxâs Hegelianism were generally conducted under the sign of idealism and its denunciation; today probably it is vitalism that is the more significant issue. But in the newer Marxian investigations, Hegelâs Logic is grasped as a theoretical anticipation of the complex and dialectical forms taken by capital itself. This is the sense in which, retroactively, Hegel is reread through Marx and not the other way round. As one of these contributors puts it, Hegel becomes an appropriate reference because it is capital itself which is âidealisticâ. At any rate, this stimulating volume offers a rich sampling of the newer approach and the insights it provides to Marx himself.â
â Prof. Fredric Jameson, Duke University
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Fred Moseley and Tony Smith
I. IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM
1. Hegel, Marx and the Comprehension of Capitalism
Tony Smith
2. Capital Breeds: Interest-Bearing Capital as Purely Abstract Form
Mark Meaney
3. Dialectics on its Feet, or the Form of the Consciousness of the Working Class as Historical Subject
Juan Iñigo Carrera
4. Which âRational Kernelâ? Which âMystical Shellâ? A Contribution to the Debate on the Connection between Hegelâs Logic and Marxâs Capital Gastón Caligaris and Guido Starosta
II. HEGELâS CONCEPT AND MARXâS CAPITAL
5. The Universal and the Particulars in Hegelâs Logic and Marxâs Capital Fred Moseley
6. On Hegelâs Methodological Legacy in Marx
Roberto Fineschi
7. Lost in Translation: Once Again on the MarxâHegel Connection
Riccardo Bellofiore
8. The Secret of Capitalâs Self-Valorisation âLaid Bareâ: How Hegel Helped Marx to Overturn Ricardoâs Theory of Profit
Patrick Murray
9. âThe Circular Course of Our Representationâ: âScheinâ, âGrundâ and âErscheinungâ in Marxâs Economic Works
Igor Hanzel
III. DIFFERENT VIEWS OF THE DIALECTIC
10. An Outline of the Systematic-Dialectical Method: Scientific and Political Significance
Geert Reuten
11. Marx, Hegel and the Value-Form
Christopher J. Arthur
12. Dialectics of Labour and Value-Form in Marxâs Capital: A Reconstruction
Mario L. Robles-Báez
References
Index
Marxian economists, philosophers, and graduate students around the world.