The Commodity-Form and the Dialectical Method: On the Structure of Marx's Exposition in Chapter 1 ofCapital

Abstract

The last 10 or 15 years have witnessed a renewed interest in Marx's dialectical method and its implications for value theory. However, most works have not sufficiently thematized the peculiar role of the phase of analysis in Marx's dialectical investigation generally and in his presentation in particular. Furthermore, they have not paid sufficient attention to the specific form of the analytical process within dialectical thought, which distinguishes it from the kind of analysis characteristic of formal–logical methodologies. Those two questions are crucial for a proper comprehension of the dialectical structure of Marx's argument in Chapter 1 of Capital and, in particular, to clarify the determinate place where the unfolding of the explanation of the determinations of privately performed abstract labor as the substance of value is to be found. That explanation is actually contained in section 3, where Marx presents the synthetic development of the expression of value into the money-form.