David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is a bi-weekly podcast that looks at capitalism through a Marxist lens. Support the show on Patreon and get early access to episodes and more: https://www.patreon.com/davidharveyacc
https://www.democracyatwork.info/davidharveyacc
episode 19: How Are We "Ruled by Abstractions?"
In this episode of ACC, Prof. Harvey examines Marx’s use of the notion of abstractions to develop a general theory of capital and his critique of capitalism. Harvey identifies different levels of abstraction used by Marx: scale, perspective of production, perspective of circulation and distribution and the contradictions that exist between production and circulation. Marx, Harvey asserts, also differentiates between the concrete abstractions of a capitalist system, such as price of commodities and wages rates, and theoretical abstractions, the behavior of capitalists who are endlessly driven by competition and the quest for profits.