FROM THE CATEGORY OF “VALUE” IN CAPITAL TO THE CATEGORY OF “THE ABSTRACT” IN MARXIST PHILOSOPHY

Lưu Trọng Chiến

Tóm tắt

Abstract: This article aims to identify the radical revolution carried out by Karl Marx (1818–1883) regarding the philosophical category of “the abstract,” through analysis of the category of “value” in Capital. It demonstrates that value, as abstraction, is a social essence existing objectively and independently in reality, though in an underdeveloped form. At the same time, this abstraction contains internal contradictions that serve as the driving force of its independent and complex development. Studying the category of “value” is key to understanding abstraction as an objective philosophical category whose full determination is achieved not in thought but in history, through its self-abstracting process as an independent entity. The main conclusion is that abstraction, as revealed by Marx via the category of “value,” is an objective product of concrete social relations, dynamic in nature, capable of self-development through contradictions, realizing its essence historically.

Keywords: abstraction, value, Capital, Karl Marx.