The Logic of Capital: An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory

by Deepankar Basu

This book presents the main economic argument developed by Marx in the three volumes of Capital in a coherent and comprehensive manner. It also delves into three long-standing debates in Marxist political the transformation problem, the Okishio theorem, and theories of exploitation and oppression. Starting with discussions of methodology, including dialectics and historical materialism, the book explains key concepts of Marxist political commodity, value, money, capital, reserve army of labour, accumulation of capital, circuit of capital, reproduction schemas, prices of production, profit, interest and rent. Scholars of economics, sociology, geography, political science, anthropology, and other kindred disciplines, will find here an accessible yet rigorous treatment of Marxist political economy.

Genres: Economics, Sociology

Kindle Edition

Published February 3, 2022

Reviews

[Myat Thura Aung · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you pick up Capital, if you're going to rigorously question the source material without being a simp, then you ought to get muddled and confused over various problems and interpretative issues inherent in the text. For example, if you don't hold the substantialist interpretation of value, which I believe is untenable, then what grounds that the real exchange acts, which posit commensurable labour quantities behind incommensurable concrete labours, do not proceed arbitrarily. That is, if the abstract labour doesn't ground exchange and if exchange is what grounds the abstract labour, then what grounds exchange ? The word 'social relations' don't throw much light on the basis of equivalence between concrete labours under exchange relations either. And what of the reduction problem ? What of the transformation problem ? How are we to make out of Marx's mistakes in his exposition on the tendency of rate of profits to fall ? If you have been vexed by these issues, then the good news is that we've got this book. But as its focus is more economic than philosophical, it doesn't really try to tackle what abstract labour really is, but it does make it intelligible by showing how and why the concept is not a theoretical redundancy while presenting means to calculate it in a way adequate to one's intended model. A wonderful book informed by recent developments within marxian economics, it is completely accessible (if you're not a total stranger to the matrix theory) and yet at the same time rigorous, both analytically and mathematically.

[Yash Arya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tracking the corresponding lecture series with this entry.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

The 3 volumes of Marx's Capital are extremely verbose works with a lot of space dedicated to economic history. In this course, Dr. Basu does an excellent job of extracting the economic logic out of it.

The course is mostly self contained. I've found it helpful to refer to specific parts in the Capital wherever necessary for further clarification.

Volume 1: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...
Volume 2: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...
Volume 3: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...

It might be difficult to see the flaw in Marx's argument for exploitation without at least a basic background in Economics (or if you've only studied Macroeconomics), so I'd recommend at least reading something like Economics in One Lesson first.
https://fee.org/resources/economics-i...
https://mises.org/forms/get-your-free...

[Geoffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no economics background, but I took an economics course and this book helped break down the structure of capitalism and how capital works & flows through the economy, as least in terms of how Marx had analyzed Capitalism. It made A LOT of sense and I strongly recommend it for anyone, especially people looking to get any sort of understanding about economics.

[Jack MacAulay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall wonderful introductory level analysis into Marx's developing of the idea Historical Materialism, Labour Theory of Value, Surplus Value, and many other Marxist Economic Topics.

Thoroughly enjoyed Basu's simple writing style and applied examples theory in the modern context.