Capital (Das Kapital) Summary | Chapterly
Capital (Das Kapital) by Karl Marx: A Complete Summary "Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor." Overview Capital (Das Kapital, Volume 1, 1867) is Karl Marx's masterwork - a comprehensive critique of capitalism and political economy. Beyond economics, it's a work of philosophy, history, and social criticism that has shaped modern thought. Marx aims to reveal the "laws of motion" of capitalist society and expose exploitation hidden behind apparently free exchange. The Commodity Marx begins with the commodity - the basic unit of capitalist wealth. Commodities have: Use-Value The utility of a thing - what makes it useful. Exchange-Value What it trades for - its price in relation to other commodities. Value The socially necessary labor time required to produce it. This is the "substance" of exchange value. The Dual Character of Labor Labor creates both use-values (concrete labor producing specific things) and value (abstract labor measured by time). This duality underlies capitalism's dynamics. Money Money is a universal commodity that measures and stores value. It enables the circulation of commodities: C-M-C (sell commodity, get money, buy commodity). Capital Capital reverses the circuit: M-C-M' (start with money, buy commodities, sell for more money). The aim...