Abstract
The paper offers a novel interpretation and affirmation of the opening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental but neglected question of why labour is the substance of value. Marx's arguments require that two philosophical threads, often separated in the literature on value, be woven together. The argument that value is the intrinsic ‘content’ making commodities exchangeable employs the thread of realism. The argument that abstract labour is the emergent ‘social substance’ of value employs the thread of dialectics. This interpretation develops the materialist and dialectical philosophy of E.V. Ilyenkov and deepens the approach to value theory initiated by Ben Fine.
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