Abstract

This chapter has three parts. The first introduces Marx’s concept of critique—or rather, how he struggles to find an adequate mode of criticizing capitalist society; the second reconstructs the central concepts and strands in Marx’s work that culminate in the concept of capitalist money; the third shows the philosophical implications and consequences of this concept. If there is one consistent theme throughout Marx’ work, then it is, following Hegel’s famous term, the sublation (Aufhebung) of philosophy. The Aufheben is to be understood in a threefold manner: (1) turning philosophical questions, problems, and categories into those of capitalist society by transforming them into the categories of political economy; (2) not simply replacing or even negating philosophy but also to show a kind of real metaphysic of capital and present philosophy its own truth; (3) and finally, it is about overcoming philosophy as philosophy, as an ultimately contemplative contemplation of the world, through revolutionary practice. This whole program culminates in his concept of capitalist money.