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The Money of the Mind and the God of Commodities – The real abstraction according to Sohn-Rethel

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  • Cardoso Machado, Nuno Miguel

Abstract

According to Sohn-Rethel there is a “secret identity” between commodity form and thought form. Commodity exchange is a real abstraction – embodied in money – and constitutes a social a priori which reflects itself in the conceptual abstraction, i.e., in the abstract thought typical of commodity-producing societies: philosophy (in ancient Greece) and modern science (in capitalism). However, the theory of Sohn-Rethel has a fundamental flaw: its exclusive identification of the real abstraction with the sphere of circulation results in the ontologization of labor which, on the contrary, is a capitalist specificity and the original source of the abstraction in this society.

Suggested Citation

  • Cardoso Machado, Nuno Miguel, 2013. "The Money of the Mind and the God of Commodities – The real abstraction according to Sohn-Rethel," MPRA Paper 48961, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:48961
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sohn-Rethel; real abstraction; commodity form; thought form;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

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