What is money? What is capital? Christopher J. Arthur brilliantly tackles these fundamental questions at a deep philosophical level in The Spectre of Capital.
He argues that the modern world is ruled by an unseen force, the spectre of capital. This insight is rooted in a strikingly original combination of the ideas of Marx and Hegel. Arthur here presents the most sophisticated argument to date for the 'homology thesis,' spelling out how the order of Hegel's logical categories, and that of the social forms assessed by Marx in Capital, share the same architectonic. The systematic-dialectical presentation of this thesis shows how capital becomes a self-sustaining power.
Publication date: August 29, 2023
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part 1 Object and Method
1 Capital and Social Form
2 Capital and the Actuality of the Ideal
3 Systematic Dialectic
4 The Two Dialectics of Capital: Analytic and Synthetic
5 With What Must the Critique of Capital Begin?
Part 2 The Ideal Constitution of Capital
Division I Capital in Its Notion
6 Commodity
7 Money
8 Capital
Division II Capital Relation
9 Circulation
10 Production
11 Reproduction
Division III The System of Capital
Introduction to Division III
12 Capital as a System of Capitals
13 The System of Industrial Capital
14 The Dual Ontology of Capital
15 Absolute Capital
16 Capital and Its Others: Labour and Land
17 The Spectre
18 Review of the Presentation
19 Beyond Capital and Class
Appendix 1: Commentary on Hegel’s Logic
Appendix 2: Tables
Glossary
Select Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
“Empirical analysis [...] requires a robust understanding of abstract logical forms both to grasp the present and to envisage social life’s reproduction without capital. The Spectre of Capital is an imperative contribution to this ongoing project.”
—Rebecca Carson, Radical Philosophy