Dialectic of The Concrete and of The Abstract

Abstract The reader of Capital who follows the dynamics of the analysis cannot fail to be struck by its fundamental character consisting of the continuous metamorphosis of appearance and reality. It might seem strange that, formally, dialectics is seldom mentioned in Capital. In fact, in his analysis, Marx does not talk about dialectics: he is in the dialectic. The overlooking of this situation which has no precedents -a situation whereby the analysis is itself a praxis- can give rise to serious misunderstandings. It is a situation which in fact obtains in all the analyses of Capital, beginning with the analysis of exchange-value and extending to the transformation of values into prices.