Camera Obscura or the Way Things Appear: Some Remarks About Marx’s Economic Writings

Z Mierzwa

doi:10.26794/2308-944x-2021-9-2-63-73

Abstract

I analyse the foundations of Marx’s analysis to examine the applicability of Marx’s theory of the capitalist economy to the study of current economic events. In this paper, I do not present critique the interpretations of Marx’s works made by contemporary economists; however, much of modern Marxian economics is invalid in terms of Marx’s own method and inappropriate for understanding modern capitalism. The paper is concerned with topics that have been the subject of contemporary debate and are central to Marx’s own economic writings. Here I present only textual evidence of the main tendencies in the development of capitalism discovered by Marx. There are limits to value (= time) as the sole criterion of economic expediency; the constant reproduction of a scarcity of jobs amid an abundance of goods; enlargement of material commercial relations on the other spheres of social life; development of monetary relations – the emergence of derivatives of money, i. e., ersatz money, digital money. The main conclusion that I came to is that some societies are gradually losing value and moral guidelines, threatening the very development and even the existence of other communities or peoples.

Highlights

There is not social form without a man.A camera obscura is a darkened room with a small hole at one side through which an image is projected onto the wall opposite the hole
A small enough opening in a screen only lets through rays that travel directly from different points in the scene on the other side, and these rays form an image of that scene where they reach a surface opposite from the opening
The differentia material world reflected by the human mind specifica of the capitalist economic system — the and translated into forms of thought. [...] The constant reproduction of a scarcity of jobs in the mystification which dialectic suffers in Hegel’s midst of an abundance of goods. It is the result hands, by no means prevents him from being of the dynamic of the crisis of the reproduction the first to present its general form of workof the capital-labour relation. ing in a comprehensive and conscious manner

Summary

Introduction

A camera obscura is a darkened room with a small hole at one side through which an image is projected onto the wall opposite the hole. A small enough opening in a screen only lets through rays that travel directly from different points in the scene on the other side, and these rays form an image of that scene where they reach a surface opposite from the opening. The image on the opposite surface is inverted. In a camera obscura, the image on the opposite surface is inverted (upside-down) and reversed (left to right). Marx did not be especially interested in a darkened room with a small hole as a physical phenomenon. He was interested in social camera obscura, deceptive visibility of appearance.

Diminishing part of commodity circulation

Necessary products’ basket is now available