Abstract

How should we understand the method of the critique of political economy in Capital? Returning to the epistemic problem endemic to the notion of critique in Marx is essential today. The method organizes the relation between the economic analysis of exploitation and the historical analysis of expropriation central to current debates concerning Marx’s corpus. In this article, I seek to establish the significance of the epistemic problem, pointing out the gaps generated when the dialectical character of Marx’s method is suppressed. To this end, I consider two interpretations of Capital, one normative, exemplified by the work of Karen Ng, the other dialectical, exemplified by the work of Stephanie Smallwood.