Marx: The Method of Political Economy as an Ontological Critique

Abstract

This chapter looks at the problem of the method in Marx. In particular, it examines those texts in which Marx states the ‘scientifically correct method’, in his famous section ‘The method of Political Economy’ in the Grundrisse. It is from these texts that the author performs a critique of what he considers the usual interpretation of Marx’s method and then claims that what is described in those texts are the procedures of general science rather than his method. The author concludes that the solution to this issue is not exclusively methodological or epistemological, but ontological, and that, apart from Lukács, the most influential interpretations could not understand the ontological stance of the Marxian text, which is exactly the most fundamental dimension of his critique.