Preface to Le concept de loi économique dans “Le Capital,” by Gérard Duménil

Abstract

This preface constitutes Althusser’s most consistent epistemological account of Marx's Capital since Reading Capital. Althusser considers Duménil's reading to be at odds with both empiricist and rationalist interpretations of Marx's Capital. He argues that Capital is characterized by different orders of exposition. The major order of exposition, comprising a range of concepts, including capital itself, is visible, homogeneous, and unified. The other orders of exposition, which are not simply “historical” or “concrete,” interrupt and cut across the major one. For Althusser, Marx’s chapters on the “working day” or “primitive accumulation” act as an “exterior” with respect to the concepts of the major order. Thus each concept takes its place within limits set by this exterior. These limits are not deducible from the categories of political economy; rather they transform those categories, revealing their contingency. For Althusser, this contingency in the presentation of Capital challenges us constantly to rethink Marx’s thought in the context of our own times.