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Time labor and social dominationA reinterpretation of Marx s critical theory

Moishe PostoneThe University of hicago

C MBRIDGEUNIVERSITY PRESS


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4 Abstract labor

equirements of a categorial reinterpretationThe exposition thus far has laid the groundwork for a reconstruction of M am'scritical theory. As we have Seen, the passages of the Grundrisse presented inChapter One suggest a critique of capitalism whose assumptions are very dif-ferent from those of the traditional critique. These passages do not representutopian visions that later were excluded from Marx's more sober analysis in

apital but are a key to understanding that analysis; they provide the point ofdeparture for a reinterpretation of the basic categories of Marx's mature critiquethat can overcome the limits of the traditional Marxist paradigm. My exami-nation of the presuppositions of this paradigm has highlighted certain require-ments such a reinterpretation must meet.I have examined approaches that, proceeding from a transhistorical notion oflabor as the standpoint of the critique, conceptualize the social relations char-acterizing capitalism in terms of the mode of distribution alone, and locate thesystem's fundamental contradiction between the modes of distribution and pro-duction. Central to this examination was the argument that the Marxian categoryof value should not be understood merely as expressing the market-mediatedform of the distribution of wealth. A categorial reinterpretation, therefore, mustfocus on Marx's distinction between value and material wealth; it must showthat value is not essentially a market category in his analysis, and that the lawof value is not simply one of general econom ic equilibrium. Ma rx's Statementthat in capitalism direct la bor time [is the] decisive factor in the production of

wealth, ' suggests that his category of value should be examined as a form ofwealth whose specificity is related to its temporal determination. An adequatereinterpretation of value must demonstrate the significance of the temporal de-termination of value for Marx's critique and for the question of the historicaldynamic of capitalism.Related to the Problem of value is that of labor. As I have shown, so long asone assumes that the category of value-hence, the capitalist relations of pro-duction-are adequate ly understood in terms of the market and private property,1. Marx, Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy trans. Martin Nicolaus

(London, 1973 ,p. 704.


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