Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 11, 2023

 

Reanalysis of the Creation Methods of Marx’s Capital

(Abstract)

 

Li Dianlai

 

As a major issue in research on Marx’s Capital, the methodology of its creation is too important to be bypassed or avoided by researchers. In terms of the core creation methods in Capital, Marx reforms the Hegelian basis through materialist dialectics. Marx’s stressing of dialectics is inseparable from his awareness of issues and the direction of his thought toward continuous in-depth inquiry, pursuit and exploration. Marx’s creative application of dialectics demonstrates his implementation of a method of logic which ascends from the abstract to the concrete, in a course of dialectical, not deductive, logic. This constitutes the logical form of the creation method of Capital. Both the research method and the narrative method incorporate the method of creation of Capital as a whole. It is essential to comprehend the two on the basis of the transition from the abstract to the concrete. Furthermore, as a methodological and epistemological issue, Capital’s creation methods also play a role as an ontological issue in the understanding of Marx’s materialism. With ascension from the abstract to the concrete as the form of logic, dialectics leads to a cognitive level. This displays materialism, a thoroughgoing materialism at an ultimate ontological level that enables the understanding of Marx’s materialism.