On the need and the limits of the dialectical exposition of the categories of political economy

Abstract

This paper explores the hypothesis that the paradoxical character of the concept of value is behind the need to adopt a dialectical form of exposition of this concept. Building on the works of authors associated with critical theory, it examines value’s specific mode of objectivity, and argues that Marx’s adoption of the dialectic mode of exposition was motivated by his comprehension that value is at once immaterial and objective. It then analyses the relation between dialectics and critique, and shows that Marx’s adoption of
the dialectic mode of exposition allows him to both unveil the historicity of value and its forms and to explain why such social entities necessarily appear as something natural. Lastly, it argues that the limits of the capitalist social forms determine the character of their dialectical exposition, which means that the latter has limits of the latter cannot be overcome without deforming the very content of such forms.

Keywords: value theory, method, dialectics, social forms.