|
Das Kapital ("Capital") is a treatise of political economy written by Karl Marx. The book is a critical analysis of capitalism and of its economic practices. Marx bases his work on that of the classical economists like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and even Benjamin Franklin. However, he applies these authors' ideas critically and carefully, so his book is a critical synthesis that does not follow the lead of any one thinker. It also reflects the dialectical methodology of G.W.F. Hegel and the socialist ideas of French authors such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The central injustice of capitalism, according to Marx, was that employers made their profits by paying labourers the market value of their labour but less than the value of the commodities they produce - the former being unrelated to the latter. However, his book is not an ethical treatise as much as an (unfinished) explication of the "laws of motion" of the capitalist system.
Marx published the first volume of Das Kapital in 1867, though he died before he could finish the second and third ones; these were edited from Marx's manuscripts by his friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels, and published in 1885 and 1894 respectively.
Marx notes in his preface to the French edition of Das Kapital that the beginning of his work is not easy reading (since he defines many terms), but once he has gotten through that it becomes easier to read. Others have subsequently agreed that the very beginning of Das Kapital is the most difficult part to get through, which puts some people off from reading it.
External links
|
