A Study Of Marxist Theory Of "Subjectivity Of Capital"

"Subjectivity of capital" was the core idea of Marx's critique theory. It is based on the philosophical revolution of Marx and constitutes the theory of "subjectivity of capital" together with the latter, which was the main methods by which Marx reconsidered and surveyed the whole situations in modern societies.The six main parts of the present thesis are as follows:Chapter One: Birth of the Concept "Subjectivity of Capital""Subjectivity of capital", proposed in the history of Marxist philosophy, had experienced several stages: Firstly, in his Economic and Philosophy Manuscripts in 1844, Marx affirmed the classical economics on "the subjective essence of wealth". On this basis, he further raised that private property , in the form of capital, had played a role of "subjective essence" in capitalist society, namely, "make private property in its active form "(Capital) the subject; Secondly, Capital was thus "the governing power over other men's labor and its products", and it not only dominated the workers, but also "the capitalists themselves" before 1845; Thirdly, in Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx expressed for the first time his viewpoint of capital as "independence and individuality"; Fourthly, Marx clearly stated the perspective of "capital as subject" and proposed the concept of "the Subjectivity of Capital" in "1857-1858 Manuscript of Economics". As a result, Marx expressed his philosophical task on Critique of "the subjectivity of capital", and the essence of philosophical revolution he had achieved in the history of philosophy was to liberate human being from the "abstract" rules and from the general rules of "object", i.e., to free human from the general rules of "capital" and turn the subjectivity of capital into human's subjectivity. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that "subjectivity of capital", as a kind of "subjectivity being", is the autonomy, initiative, and transcendence that capital has showed. It is the result that capital as abstract labor has been subjected.Chapter Two: The Origin of "the Subjectivism of Capital""The subjectivity of capital" has emerged in modern society, which is directly the result of the "disembeding" of capital. However, this process is not just a simple case of economics, but also a fundamental change in all social life including economic, political, cultural, and so on. Here, the most important was the change of philosophical basis that was "the principle of subjectivity" established by Descartes in the modern Western philosophy, which opened all of the phases of modern human life. Since then, human was able to break away from the glory of God, and as the subject of "I think" began the modernization process to conquer the nature. On that basis, "currency changed into capital"; use-value was replaced by exchange-value; the commodity economy had triumphed over natural economy and become dominant economic form in the whole society; the world was "disenchanted", and the "Rational Man" gradually ignored the existence of God in pursuit of real interests----"God died"; utilitarian replaced virtue, and the development of utilitarianism provided an ethical basis in the process that value was quantified in Western society, which has offered a moral defense for the development of capitalism; finally, as "money which begets money," capital extended or expanded forth external space through its inherent stipulation, and made the present era an age of capital "disembeding". Meanwhile, along with the development of capitalist commodity economy, the bourgeoisie was gradually evolved, which mounted the stage of history as a powerful political force. "Freedom", "Equality", "Fraternity" and "Human Rights" had become the spirit of the people, and ultimately established bourgeois ideology.Chapter Three: Contemporary Development of "Subjectivity of Capital"In modern times, the coupling between capital and "Subject Metaphysics" has brought forth double consequences: On the one hand, human's subjectivity has broken away from the shadow of divinity subjectivity, and achieved the aim that dominated the entire world by right of capital----"globalization"; On the other hand, as a kind of materialized existence, capital (abstract labor) has obtained the eminent domain to the latter through the exchange of concrete labor. Thus, capital ascended rapidly a kind of "subjectivity being", and turned into "realistic metaphysics". Therefore, the subjectivity, both as idea ("subjective metaphysics") and as material ("subjective capital"), has been establishing the entire modernity building. In other words, modernity has become a dominant force in reality because of the unlimited proliferation nature of capital and the endless scheming of modern metaphysics. That is "the double construction" of modernity in contemporary society. In this way, the domination of "the subjectivity of capital" in the reality is not just a simple problem of productive principle, but also inherently includes the consciousness hegemony of modern metaphysics. Today, the productive logic of modernity is not simply "commodity production", but"desire production"which makes the productive logic of capital unprecedented crazy. The whole reality is forcibly gathered in the "capital"; Heidegger formulated that as "enframing", whose main function is to control and calculation. Finally, there is no doubt that all the values, the value of life included, are "subordinated" to the exchange value at the capital level. In conclusion, it can be put that we are living in capital as "a form of rule", and the problem domain Marx had sparkplug had not changed. In this sense, how to understand the current capital structure and its historical position is still a major theoretical problem which contemporary Marxist philosophy should be concerned about critically.Chapter Four: Four Faces of "Subjectivity of Capital"In "capital civilization", the uncultured social relations were abandoned and surpassed. At the same time, the development of productivity provided necessary material conditions to future social relationships, which consequently opened a possible space for free and fully-developed human beings. Thus, human's self-consciousness of subject became the more realistic and abundant basis of humanity. This was the content of "subjectivity of capital" shown from the angle of the development of human. On this basis, the whole society has shown itself as Marx's "the second phase of history": "human's independence based on his dependence on substance". It is in this sense that we believe that "the subjectivity of capital" is the abstract form of human's subjectivity. However, in its deep structure, what "the subjectivity of capital" has represented is the process that capital is "restructuring" our world, which is digesting human's subjectivity. As a result, human being has been thrown thoroughly into a value sequence of "economic teleology", and he is "objectified", "valuatized", even turned to "productive materials", from which no one can escape. Thus, all the existence has shown a "hypo-taxis" relationship to capital, and serviced to the entire process of capital proliferation in the sense of "productive materials". Thus, this is the evolving process of the whole Modern Western Philosophy in its thinking mode: thinking defines and dominates being, step by step; being has inevitably experienced a course that was "objectified", "valuatized", and even turned to "productive materials". In Heidegger's words, that was being reduced to "the being", and lost its original meaning. This is the beginning that being goes to "comprehensive alienation": Firstly, capital, as a "point of view" of value, has become the yardstick of value, and the value sequence was reordered according to it; secondly, being has been turn to commodity including culture, and "mass culture" emerges as the times require; then, culture has become capital and lost the ability of refection and critique, falling into the trap of "institutionalized reflection" (Anthony Giddens); finally, behind the modernity narrative of "profit maximization", "self-subject " is replaced by "self-capital"----everybody is only "personified capital" and his main function is proliferation. Since then, man, as an independent subject established in modern philosophy, has been dismembered completely. What has been left is nothing more than "parts" in the production line of capital. Along with the development of modern society, it seems to be an inevitable result and there is no way out. Chapter Five: Critique of "Subjectivity of Capital"Marx's critique on "the subjectivity of capital", in its philosophical essence, was to transcend western modern philosophy of consciousness (or Subject Metaphysics). Therefore, as contemporary philosophy in its true sense, Marxist Philosophy had transcended and ended in theory, all forms of metaphysics. In this domain, we can correctly grasp the meaning of "thinking mode based on practice" that is the kernel achievement of Marxist reformation on philosophical viewpoint. On the basis of the activity of consciousness in Germany Classical Philosophy, Marx further unveiled the concept of "sensuous activity" as a kind of objectivity different from the "inherence" of consciousness. As a kind of "new sensuousness" transcending the definition of pure thinking logic, objectivity defines and restricts thinking fundamentally, and further transcends "inherent consciousness". In the field of social history, "sensuous activity", or labor, incarnates human's practical activity of production. Human have proved their essential strength, and eventually become man in essence through labor. Accordingly, we can say the end-result that Marx had transcended the "inherence" of Western Philosophy is "labor", and its complete form is the "free conscious activities". On the level of "free labor", Marx began his ontological critique to "the subjectivity of capital", which is what we have explained the ontological significance of "the free labor" in Marxist philosophy. On such a basis, we could criticize "subjectivity of capital" in-depth or spread "the critique with high-degree principle". As the result of the thinking mode that transcends the confrontation between idealism and materialism, ontology and reductionism, "the free labor" has fundamentally transcended "metaphysics of inherent consciousness", and reached Heidegger's "dis-location". Subsequently, the starting point of thinking had been transformed from "existence" to "consciousness" and "man". Only on this ground, human have been out of "subjectivity of capital" and modern metaphysics, and realized the ideal of "freely and fully development". It is "communism" in social form. Here, human has broken away from the state of "homelessness" and alienation, and can dwell on this earth "full of poetical merit".Chapter Six: The Internal Tension of Marxist Dialectical Critique Marx's critique on "subjectivity of capital" is a kind of self-critique of ontology and its standard is "to discover a new world through criticizing the present one". Here, the "new world" was "communism" or "free labor" in Marx's words. Viewed from the "thinking mode based on practice", this standard is not only immanent and historical, but transcendent, which has shown us a kind of real possibility----"utopia on things self"(Bloch's words) ----rooted in grasping to present social reality. In this sense, Marxist dialectical critique was a kind of critique "on the road" to the possible self-negation space within which things had spread in reality. Hence, we believe that Marxist philosophy was a kind of metaphysics "on the road" between "used to be" and "should be", and was real-life metaphysics. Also in this sense, we can say that, as "practical theory", Marxist philosophy was "Practice-Metaphysics" different from "theoretical form" of metaphysics. Thus it can be seen that all the critique must be censured by a kind of metaphysics, for there must be a standard or measure whenever we engage in critique. As a kind of surrealistic existence, it cannot be but "metaphysical". This is especially true with philosophical critique. As "Practice-Metaphysics", Marxist philosophy does not only preserve the metaphysical dimension, but spread real critique. At the same time, because of such unique theoretical characteristics, Marxist philosophy had always maintained an inherent tension between theory and practice, the subjective and the objective. Therefore, philosophical critique lies between philosophy and science, combines critical reflection and empirical test together, and infiltrates in the social life as the design of participation and practice. In this way, "it participates in the dialogue and practices in the community of social life, with a kind of exploratory and constructive theoretical attitude", which is the demonstration trend of contemporary dialectics. To digest the main rule of "subjectivity of capital" and transcends fundamentally the violence and terror of modern metaphysics, we must resort to the rational development of contemporary dialectics.