The Unfinished System of Karl Marx

This book examines what we can gain from a critical reading of Marx's final manuscript and his conclusion of the "systematic presentation" of his critique, which was the basis for Engels's construction of the third volume of his infamous 'Capital'. The text introduces the reader to a key problem´of Marx's largely implicit epistemology, by exploring the systematic character of his exposition and the difference of this kind of 'systematicity' from Hegelian philosophical system construction. The volume contributes to establishing a new understanding of the critique of political economy, as it has been articulated in various debates since the 1960s - especially in France, Germany, and Italy - and as it had already been initiated by Marx and some of his followers, with Rosa Luxemburg in a key role. All the chapters are transdisciplinary in nature, and explore the modern day relevance of Marx's and Luxemburg's theoretical analysis of the dominance of the capitalist mode of production.

Offers a critical reading to one of the best known critique of capitalism in the twentieth century Considers the modern day relevance of Marxian analysis of capitalism through its application to contemporary issues Brings together scholars of economics, politics, philosophy, sociology and history to offer a thorough analysis from a multidisciplinary perspective

Auteur
Judith Dellheim is a senior research fellow at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin, Germany. She has worked in the foreign trade of the GDR. Since 1990, she has been working on economies of solidarity, on political parties and movements, and on economic policies. She has been a member of the Federal Board of the PDS in 19952003, a free-lance scientific consultant from 20042010, and senior researcher at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation since 2011. She is co-author of Rosa Luxemburg: A Permanent Challenge for Political Economy.*

*Frieder Otto Wolf is Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. He has been a lecturer in philosophy at this institution since 1973, and became Honorary Professor in 2007. He has served as a fellow at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and sits on the advisory board of several journals. He has published books and articles on political philosophy, the politics of labor, the politics of sustainability, political epistemology, and metaphilosophy, including as co-author of Rosa Luxemburg: A Permanent Challenge for Political Economy.

Contenu

1. Foreword (Judith Dellheim and Frieder Otto Wolf).- 2. The challenge of the incompleteness of the Third Volume of Capital for theoretical and political work today (Judith Dellheim and Frieder Otto Wolf).- 3. Taking up the challenge of living labour. A backwards looking reconstruction' of the recent Italian debates on Marx's theory of the capitalist mode of production (Riccardo Bellofiore and Frieder Otto Wolf).- 4. Capitalist Communism: Marx's Theory of the Distribution of Surplus-Value in Volume III of Capital (Fred Moseley).- 5. Another, productive and challenging, incompleteness' of the Third Volume of Capital (Frieder Otto Wolf).- 6. Secular Stagnation' and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall in Marx's Critique of Political Economy (Joachim Bischoff, Stephan Krüger, Christoph Lieber), 7. Profit, Elasticity and Nature (Kohei Saito).- 8. The Social Constitution of Commodity Fetishism, Money Fetishism and Capital Fetishism (Georgios Daremas).- 9. Marx's critical notes on the classical note of interest (Jan Toporowski).- 10. Joint-Stock Company' and 'Share Capital' as Economic Categories of Critical Political Economy (Judith Dellheim).- 11. Capital Volume Three gaps seen from South Africa: Marx's crisis theory, Luxemburg's capitalist/non-capitalist relations and Harvey's seventeen contradictions of capitalism (Patrick Bond).- 12. Foreshadowing of the future in the critical analysis of the present (Michael Brie).