Autonomization of social forms and crisis

Abstract

With the advent of the crisis caused by North American mortgage bonds in September 2008, there is, in the critical field, an intense resumption of the discussion of the concepts developed by Marx in section V of Book III of Capital, in particular those of interest-bearing capital and fictitious capital. However, to understand how these concepts elucidate these phenomena, it is necessary to consider the theoretical context in which they arise. This means not only remembering that we are talking about the capitalist production process as a whole (Book III), but also that these concepts form the end point of a categorical development that Marx begins in the opening chapter of Book I. In this article, I try to briefly retrace this path, which I understand to be that of presenting, pari passu, a process of autonomization of social forms (first section), to then elaborate some reflections on its relevance for understanding the nature of contemporary capitalism and the current crisis ( second section).