The Economic Law Of Motion Of Modern Society

The contributors assess the theories and interpretations of those theories of Marx, Keynes and Schumpeter.

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of political economy, intended to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production. In Capital: Critique of Political Economy (1867), Karl Marx proposes that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labour, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value and then profit both of which concepts have a specific meaning for Marx. The employer is able to claim the right to profits because he or she owns the productive capital assets (means of production), which are legally protected by the capitalist state through property rights (the historical section shows how this right was acquired in the first place chiefly through plunder and conquest and the activity of the merchant and 'middle-man'). In producing capital (money) as well as commodities (goods and services), the workers continually reproduce the economic conditions by which they labour. Capital proposes an explanation of the "laws of motion" of the capitalist economic system, from its origins throughout its future, by describing the dynamics of the accumulation of capital, the growth of wage labour, the transformation of the workplace, the concentration of capital, commercial competition, the banking system, the decline of the profit rate, land-rents, et cetera. Capital, Volume I (1867) is a critical analysis of political economy, meant to reveal the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production, how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production, and of the class struggle rooted in the capitalist social relations of production. The first of three volumes of Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Okonomie (Capital: Critique of Political Economy) was published on 14 September 1867, dedicated to Wilhelm Wolff, and was the sole volume published in Marx's lifetime. The purpose of Capital: Critique of Political Economy (1867) was a scientific foundation for the politics of the modern labour movement; the analyses were meant "to bring a science, by criticism, to the point where it can be dialectically represented" and so "reveal the law of motion of modern society" to describe how the capitalist mode of production was the precursor of the socialist mode of production. The argument is a critique of the classical economics of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and Benjamin Franklin, drawing on the dialectical method that G.W.F. Hegel developed in The Science of Logic and The Phenomenology of Spirit; other intellectual influences upon Capital were the French socialists Charles Fourier, Comte de Saint-Simon, Sismondi and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon; and the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle."

The Das Kapital of the 20th century,Society of the Spectacle is an essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960's, in particular the May 1968 uprisings in France, up to the present day, with global capitalism seemingly staggering around in it’s Zombie end-phase, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life in the late 20th century. This ‘Red and Black’ translation from 1977 is Introduced by Notting Hill armchair insurrectionary Tom Vague with a galloping time line and pop-situ verve, and given a more analytical over view by young upstart thinker Sam Cooper.

Marx’s Capital has of course been widely read; this revival of a systematic study by Geoffrey Pilling, originally published in 1980, argues powerfully that, in order to understand Capital fully, it is necessary to have read and understood Hegel’s Logic. This argument leads to a detailed examination of the opening chapters of Capital, and a re-examination of their significance for the work as a whole. Pilling emphasizes the fundamental nature of the break between Marx’s Capital and all forms of classical political economy, and stresses the revolutionary nature of Marx’s critique of political economy as one of the foundations of Capital. He also lays particular emphasis on the philosophical aspects of the work, so often neglected by British commentators, and puts forward the view that Marx’s notion of fetishism, often looked upon as incidental to his work, is in fact central to his entire critique of political economy.

Based on Marx’s Capital, Uno Kōzō’s Theory of Crisis provides a rigorous exposition of the necessity of crisis of the capitalist mode of production from the perspectives of “excess capital alongside surplus populations”.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: A, McGill University, 0 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Joseph Schumpeter was born the same year Karl Marx died. One might say Schumpeter was destined to follow in Marx’s footsteps. Marx had involved himself in the study of Capitalism and became a great source of influence for Schumpeter who elaborated on his theories. An essential part of their study was devoted to Capitalist Dynamics. Their views on the subject show fundamental similarities but demonstrate several differences as well, which are explained in part by their different experience of economic history. This paper will focus on comparing and contrasting the capitalist dynamics of Karl Marx and Joseph Schumpeter, their theories on what Capitalism is driven by and how it evolves. As a starting point, it is interesting to distinguish Marx’s and Schumpeter’s opposed feeling of Capitalism. Marx studied the laws of motion of Capitalism because he was concerned about the exploitation of workers and thus was against Capitalism. Schumpeter, on the other side, approved of Capitalism and considered free market Capitalism the “best economic system”. Marx believes that unemployment will increase as workers are replaced by machines and that Capitalism impoverishes the masses. On the other side, Schumpeter believes that Capitalism can ameliorate the conditions of the workers: “The capitalist process, not by coincidence but by virtue of its mechanism, progressively raises the standard of life of the masses. It does so through a sequence of vicissitudes, the severity of which is proportional to the speed of the advance. But it does so effectively.” Karl Marx, however, was not completely against Capitalism as it “rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life”.

Revised throughout with an entirely new chapter, "In Defense of Internal Relations," and with replies to critical comments on the 1st edition, which the N.Y. Review of Books called "a remarkable book...brilliant and illuminating."

For over a century, Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism has been a crucial resource for social movements. Now, recent economic crises have made it imperative for us to comprehend and actualize Marx’s ideas. But without a knowledge of Karl Marx’s life as he lived it, neither Marx nor his works can be fully understood. There are more than twenty-five comprehensive biographies of Marx, but none of them consider his life and work in equal, corresponding measure. This biography, planned for three volumes, aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents. This first volume will deal extensively with Marx’s youth in Trier and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It will also examine the function of poetry in his intellectual development and his first occupation with Hegelian philosophy and with the so-called “young Hegelians” in his 1841 Dissertation. Already during this period, there were crises as well as breaks in Marx’s intellectual development that prompted Marx to give up projects and re-conceptualize his critical enterprise. This volume is the beginning of an astoundingly dimensional look at Karl Marx – a study of a complex life and body of work through the neglected issues, events, and people that helped comprise both. It is destined to become a classic.