Theory as Critique

“Marx is widely considered an outmoded nineteenth-century thinker whose predictions have been falsified [...] Paul Mattick’s superb study, Theory as Critique: Essays on Capital, establishes that these endlessly recycled objections either are not substantiated in a close reading of Marx’s works or do not touch the heart of Marx’s position. Correcting previous interpretations, however, is not Mattick’s ultimate goal: ‘the main interest of this book is the attempt to bridge the gap between Marx’s ideas and their application to present-day circumstances’. Far from being an account of nineteenth-century capitalism made obsolete by more recent developments, Marx’s theory is ‘still explanatorily relevant to a social system that continues to have the basic features Marx identified’.”—Tony Smith, H-Net Reviews

• Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Marx’s Abstraction   Science   Idealisation   Explanation 3 Questions of Method   Marx’s Abandonment of Philosophy   Logic and Abstraction   Marx’s Dialectic 4 Theory as Critique   Political Economy as Text and Discourse   Representation and Reality   The Starting Point   The Argument in Capital 5 Labour as Activity and as Representation   Value as Representation   Abstract Labour and Value   Abstraction in Practice   The Reduction of Skilled Labour   The Causal Reality of Value 6 Value and Price: Marx’s Resolution of a Ricardian Conundrum   Labour and Value   Value and Price 7 Ricardo Redux   After Sraffa   Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 8 Economic Form and Social Reproduction   Capital   Circulation and Reproduction 9 Class and Capital   Economic Appearances and Social Reality   Economic Class and Social Structure   Class Struggle and Revolution 10 Trend and Cycle   Theoretical Issues   Breakdown 11 Value Theory and Economic Events   Categories and Data   Prosperity as Depression Bibliography Index