The "Limits of Dialectical Presentation" as a Key Category of Marx's Theoretical Self-Reflection

• Published in: Capitalism, nature, socialism nature, socialism, 2004-09, Vol.15 (3), p.79-85
• Main Author: Wolf, Frieder Otto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Commodities; Dialectical Materialism; Forces And Relations of Production; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich; Labor Theory of Value; Marx, Karl; Methodology (Philosophical); Money; Rents; Sociological Theory; Theoretical Problems
• ISSN: 1045-5752
• DOI: 10.1080/0145575042000247266

An examination of the "blind spot" in Karl Marx's attempts to describe the difference between his own dialectics & those of Georg Hegel argues that it's not possible to describe the differences in terms of substance & method because there is no such thing as "false" dialectical thinking. Nor is it possible to oppose Marx's "materialist" dialectic to Hegel's "idealist" dialectics since to do so would require reflective categories so broad they would prevent differentiating between the "the specific materiality & contradiction" of each single subject-matter. The notion of "excentricity" is used to help link the difference of theoretical fields like the "commodity form" to multiple perspectives within the process of historical reality. Marx's distinction between "presentation" & "research" is explored & three examples of systematic limitations of Marx's dialectical method of presenting his theory are discussed: (1) the historical process leading to the singling out of one commodity as the money commodity ; (2) existence of the "double free" wage laborer; & (3) the theory of land rent. Implications for the dialogue between theoretically reflective Marxists & theoretical work from other lines of thought are discussed. J. Lindroth