Value in Capitalist Society: Rethinking Marx’s Criticism of Capitalism

204 Pages·2015·0.924 MB·English

by  Paul Cobben

Value in Capitalist Society
<UN>
Critical Studies in
German Idealism
Series Editor
Paul G. Cobben
Advisory Board
Simon Critchley – Paul Cruysberghs – Rózsa Erzsébet – Garth Green –
Vittorio Hösle – Francesca Menegoni – Martin Moors – Michael Quante –
Ludwig Siep – Timo Slootweg – Klaus Vieweg
VOLUME 13
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/csgi
<UN>
Value in Capitalist Society
Rethinking Marx’s Criticism of Capitalism
By
Paul Cobben
LEIDEN | BOSTON
<UN>
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cobben, Paul.
Value in capitalist society : rethinking Marx’s criticism of capitalism / by Paul Cobben.
  pages cm. -- (Critical studies in german idealism, ISSN 1878-9986 ; volume 13)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-29429-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. Kapital. 2. Capitalism. I. Title.
 HB501.M37C595 2015
 335.4’12--dc23
2015012653
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1878-9986
isbn 978-90-04-29429-5 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29430-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa.
Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
<UN>
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 Marx’s Analysis of the Commodity and the Phenomenology of Spirit 12
Introduction 12
Sense-Certainty (sinnliche Gewissheit) and the ‘ungeheure
Warensammlung’ as Point of Departure 12
The Contradiction of Perception and the Contradiction of the
Determination as Use Value 15
The Sublation of Perception in Understanding and of Use Value in
Exchange Value 17
The Transition from Consciousness to Self-Consciousness and from
Market to Private Domain 21
The ‘Begierde’ and the Satisfaction of the Real Individual’s
Needs 23
The Life-and-Death Struggle for Recognition and the Struggle of
Competition at the Market 24
The Lord/Bondsman Relation and the Capitalist Free Market 26
Conclusion 37
2 The Realm of Culture and the Historical Process in which the
Proletarian Becomes Self-Aware 39
Introduction 39
The Development in the Phenomenology of Spirit and European
History 40
The Communist Revolution and the Realm of Culture 42
a. The Development of the Church as Presupposition of the
Realm of Culture 44
b. The Development of the Church and Individual Proletarian
Self-Consciousness 45
c. The Realm of Culture 47
d. The Realm of Culture and the Realization of Revolutionary,
Proletarian Self-Consciousness 50
Conclusion 52
<UN>
vi Contents
3 Marx’s Analysis of the Commodity and Hegel’s Grundlinien der
Philosophie des Rechts 54
Introduction 54
The Project of the Philosophy of Right in Relation to the
Phenomenology of Spirit 54
Abstract Right and Morality as the Systematic Development of the
Lord/Bondsman Relation, Starting from the Concept of Pure
Freedom 56
The Coherence between the Development of the Phenomenology of
Spirit and the Philosophy of Right 58
The System of Needs as the Systematic Development of
the Realm of Culture Starting from the Concept of
Pure Freedom 60
The Development of the Value-Form as Marx’s Counterpart of the
Development of Abstract Right 63
Marx’s Reception of the System of Needs 64
Conclusion 68
4 Hegel’s Determination of Value at the Level of Abstract Right in the Light
of Marx’s Criticism 73
Introduction 73
Use Value and the Good Life 73
Universal Value in Relation to Use Value 75
Marx and the Equal Exchange between Persons 79
The Determination of Abstract Labor at the Level of
the Market 84
Marx’s Conception of Value (Abstract Labor) in Comparison with
Hegel’s Conception 86
Conclusion 87
5 The System of Needs in the Light of Marx’s Criticism 89
Introduction 89
The Realization of Abstract Right as a Moment of the System of
Needs 90
The Realization of Intention and Welfare as a Moment of the System of
Needs 92
The “Scheinen der Vernünftigkeit” (Show of Rationality) 94
The “Scheinen der Vernünftigkeit” and Real Exchange 98
Conclusion 106
<UN>
Contents vii
6 Wage Labor and the Corporation: Obstacles for the Free Market? 108
Introduction 108
The System of Needs as an Institution in Service of the Realization of
Freedom 108
Wage Labor and the Realization of Particular Welfare 109
Wage Labor, the Market and Their Relevance for Our Time 111
Intellectual Labor in Its Relation to the Market 116
The Dynamics of the Market and the Relation between Intellectual
and Manual Labor 117
Conclusion 121
7 Capital as Community of Value 123
Introduction 123
The Capitalist as Person in the Market 123
The Capitalist Company as Community of Value 129
The Relation of the Employee to the Capitalist Company as
Community of Value 131
The Quality of Technological Innovations 137
Conclusion 138
8 Modern Society and the Ongoing Revision of the Good Life 140
Introduction 140
The Multitude of Companies and the Unity of the Good Life 140
Innovation: The Transformation of the Particular Interest Outside the
Framework of the Good Life 146
The Institutional Structure which can Guarantee Harmonic Unity
between Developing Particular Interests 149
Conclusion 151
9 Mediating Institutions between Market and State 155
Introduction 155
The State as Presupposition of the Free Market 159
The Reproduction of the State and the Mediating Institutions in the
Light of Sustainability 163
Conclusion 171
10 The Identity of the Sustainable State and the Adequate
Determination of Value 173
Introduction 173
<UN>
viii Contents
How to Determine the Identity of a Self-Conscious State? 174
The Modern (Self-Conscious) State and Its Internal Relation to the
International Legal Order 177
The Internal Relation of the Nation State to the International
Community of States 178
The Internal Relation of the International Legal Order to the Nation
State 179
The Adequate Determination of Value in a Globalized World 180
Conclusion 181
Literature 183
Index 185
<UN>
Preface
In the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts, the young Marx expresses his
admiration for the young Hegel: “Das Grosse an der Hegelschen Phänomenologie
und ihren Endresultat—der Dialektik der Negativität als dem bewegenden
und erzeugenden Prinzip—ist also einmal, dass Hegel die Selbsterzeugung des
Menschen als einem Prozess fasst, die Vergegenständlichung als Entgegen-
ständlichung, als Entäusserrung und als Aufhebung der Entäusserung; das er
also das Wesen der Arbeit fasst und den gegenständlichen Menschen, wahren,
weil wirklichen Menschen als Resultat seiner eigenen Arbeit begreift” (pm, p.
113).1 This admiration, however, is immediately tied to a fundamental criticism
of Hegel: “Die Arbeit, welche Hegel allein kennt und anerkennt, ist die abstrakt
geistige” (pm, p. 114).2 According to Marx, Hegel understands reality in the form
of alienation. Abstract, spiritual labor is the alienated form of real, materialist
labor.
In this book, I will show that Marx’s position is unchanged in Capital. The
logical structure of Marx’s analysis of the commodity corresponds to the logi-
cal structure of the development of substance in the Phenomenology of Spirit.
Marx’s analysis of the commodity results in his conception of Capital as
substance in the form of alienation. While Hegel claims that substance can be
understood as the realization of freedom, Marx shows this freedom to be alien-
ated labor: abstract labor, which Marx identifies as the capitalist conception of
value. Mediated by a comparison between the Phenomenology of Spirit and the
Philosophy of Right, I clarify why Marx’s so-called materialist criticism of Hegel
can be conceived of as an immanent criticism of Hegel: Marx’s criticism expli-
cates that the realization of freedom in the Philosophy of Right contradicts
Hegel’s basic point of departure. The adequate realization of freedom not only
leads to an alternative (non-alienated) conception of value, but also explains
why this conception of value is fully compatible with the free market.
1 “The outstanding achievement of Hegel’s Phänomenologie and of its final outcome, the dia-
lectic of negativity as the moving and generating principle, is thus first that Hegel conceives
the self-creation of man as a process, conceives objectification as loss of the object, as alien-
ation and as transcendence of this alienation; that he thus grasps the essence of labour and
comprehends objective man—true, because real man—as the outcome of man’s own labour.”
2 “The only labour which Hegel knows and recognizes is abstractly mental labour.”
<UN>