A New Introduction to Karl Marx: New Materialism, Critique of Political Economy, and the Concept of Metabolism

ISBN-13: 9783030529529 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 244 str.

Ryuji Sasaki

Opis

​This book provides a concise overview of Marx’s philosophy and political economy, tracing various changes of his theoretical views over time through his practical and theoretical engagements with contradictions of capitalism from the unique perspective of Japanese Marxism. While it offers an objective introduction to Marx’s critique of capitalism, Sasaki uniquely pays particular attention to the concept of “metabolism,” whose disruption under the capitalist mode of production causes exhaustion of labour-power as well as natural resources. Sasaki reconstructs Marx as a revolutionary thinker, whose devoted his entire life for the sake of establishing a more free and equal society beyond capitalism. Sasaki’s book shows that Marx’s passion for the socialist revolution in his last years is recorded in his late excerpt notebooks that become available through the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe.

Spis treści

Preface to the English Edition

Preface

Chapter 1: The Path Toward Questioning Capitalism (1818-1848): The Young Marx and New Materialism

Chapter 2: A Changing View of Capitalism (1848-1867): Marx’s Critique of Political Economy

Chapter 3: How to Fight Against Capitalism (1867-1883): Concept of “Metabolism” Within the Later Thought of Marx

Appendix 1: Marx’s Method

Appendix 2: Marx’s Theory of Reification and the Theoretical Structure of Book One of Capital

O autorze

Ryuji Sasaki is Associate Professor of Economics at Rikkyo University, Japan.

Michael Schauerte is a translator based in Miyazaki, Japan.

Blurb

This book provides a concise overview of Marx’s philosophy and political economy, tracing various changes of his theoretical views over time through his practical and theoretical engagements with contradictions of capitalism from the unique perspective of Japanese Marxism. While it offers an objective introduction to Marx’s critique of capitalism, Sasaki uniquely pays particular attention to the concept of “metabolism,” whose disruption under the capitalist mode of production causes exhaustion of labour-power as well as natural resources. Sasaki reconstructs Marx as a revolutionary thinker, whose devoted his entire life for the sake of establishing a more free and equal society beyond capitalism. Sasaki’s book shows that Marx’s passion for the socialist revolution in his last years is recorded in his late excerpt notebooks that become available through the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe.

Ryuji Sasaki is Associate Professor of Economics at Rikkyo University, Japan.