A Study Of The Critical Theory Of Fetishism In The Second Volume Of "Capital"

The critique of fetishism is an important theory in Marx’s philosophy as well as political economy.Marx’s analysis and critique of the phenomenon and essence of fetishism reveals the self-contradictory and mysterious qualities of capitalism.In a capitalist society,fetishism exists as a system,so the attention to fetishism cannot be limited to one aspect only,and fetishism cannot be understood as a mere social psychology,but from the perspective of historical materialism,the emergence of fetishism is caused by the intrinsic nature of capitalism.Marx’s detailed theoretical account of commodity fetishism is in the first volume of Capital,which criticizes the phenomenon of capitalist fetishism in the sense of production,and in the second volume of Capital,Marx also mentions fetishism several times,which is shown from the level of circulation.Marx divided the cycle of capital forms into three components:money capital,production capital,and commodity capital.The reason why capital can display the nature of fetishism lies in the fact that capital is cyclically moving and changing,moving and shifting in the three forms,constantly revealing different postures.In this complex and confusing movement,the real human relationships are obscured and replaced by the "divine power" of capital’s operation,as if capital itself is alive,multiplying itself in circulation,and having an unceasing momentum to support its own movement and transformation.In fact,behind the camouflage of capital circulation is the interconnected social relations of real people,that is to say,the mysterious nature of capital is not really unknowable,and capital is not a deity from the sky that exerts its divine power at will,but the interconnected social relations of real people are the source of the "divine power" of capital that can be constantly transformed.The interrelated social relations of real people are the source of capital’s "divine power" that can be constantly transformed.But this fetishistic mysteriousness of capital even made the bourgeoisie fall into it and cannot extricate itself.The mercantilism among the bourgeoisie arose during the primitive accumulation of capital in Europe.This school of thought believed that capital multiplied in circulation and that more wealth could be generated through control of the means of circulation.But these measures are only superficial.Mercantilism’s practice of treating money as a god shows that it has fallen deep into the quagmire of fetishism,and in Marx’s view,capital does not proliferate in circulation.In Marx’s view,capital does not multiply in circulation.Bookkeeping and sales,which are important links in the popular perception of capital multiplication,do not actually add value to prepaid capital.Political economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo divided prepaid capital into fixed capital and liquid capital in the process of capital turnover,a classification based on the natural properties of capital.The bourgeois economists’ insistence on the properties of capital as a "thing" is itself a fetishistic mistake.In the third part of the second volume of Capital,Marx objectively presents how the total social capital is composed of the more complex total capital of capitalist society through the continuous circulation of two categories in the process of reproduction and circulation,and this objective narrative is itself an analysis and critique of the fetishistic nature of capitalism.