This book consists in part in a study of dialectical motifs in Marx’s work, and in part in further developing these themes in the context of a new tendency that has emerged in recent years, which is variously labelled ‘the New Dialectic’, ‘New Hegelian Marxism’ or ‘Systematic Dialectic’.
This book both argues for, and demonstrates, a new turn to dialectic. Marx's "Capital" was clearly influenced by Hegel's dialectical figures: here, case by case, the significance of these is clarified. More, it is argued that, instead of the dialectic of the rise and fall of social systems, what is needed is a method of articulating the dialectical relations characterising a given social whole. Marx learnt from Hegel the necessity for a "systematic" development, and integration, of categories; for example, the category of 'value' can be fully comprehended only in the context of the totality of capitalist relations. These studies thus shed new light on Marx's great work, while going beyond it in many respects.
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