Time, work and social domination – a reinterpretation of critical theory of Marx

Abstract

Published in 1993 by Cambridge University Press and later translated in Spain, France, Germany and, more recently, in Brazil, Postone's book has been widely published in recent years. One of its merits is to consider the categories of Marx's mature work as objective forms that reveal work in the sociability of capital. Such categories are understood neither as simple constructs nor as mechanical or soulless objectivities. By rethinking them, the author seeks to grasp the specific historical character of the sociability of capital and “overcome the well-known theoretical dichotomies of structure and action, meaning and material life” (p.17). Generally speaking, such designs can summarize the contribution and genius of Marx's own work, insofar as it shows that all categories of political economy express a given form of life, a certain type of action or work. For Postone, categories such as market and capital are themselves social relations: “these impersonal and abstract social forms [...] are the real relationships of capitalist society, they structure its dynamic trajectory and its form of production” (p.20). The notion of social form − present in the works of Lukács and Rubin, who insisted on its importance, in Marx, to account for a non-material, but social, objectivity − is fundamental in his argument.