This book demonstrates that the basic concepts of the three volumes of Capital come under different categories of time: "time of production" in the first volume is linear, “time of circulation” in the second is circular, while in the third volume “organic time” is the unity of the two. Capitalist relations emerge as a definite organisation of social time that obeys its own intrinsic criteria and operates as an autonomous, social subject. Reading Capital from this perspective, it becomes possible to restore its dialectical (Hegelian) logic – not in order to reveal the “real” Marx, but as a means to contribute to the understanding of the real, capitalist world with its present-day fetishes, its explosive contradictions and its ever deeper crises.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to the English Edition The Missile’s Load, Georges Labica Rearguard Seasonals Postface to the French edition by Daniel Bensaïd Translator’s Note Introduction PART I: THE TIME OF PRODUCTION Introduction Section 1: The Commodity and Labour Time 1. Labour Time as a Transhistorical Economic Law 2. Abstract Labour Time: Form and Content 3. Socially Necessary Labour Time 4. The Hegelian Theory of Measure and Value as ‘Essence’ Section 2: From Simple Circulation to Capital 5. The Process of Exchange: Historical Time and Logical Time 5.1 Historical time 5.2 Logical time 6. Simple Circulation as a Moment of the Notion 6.1 The great triad of Hegelian logic 6.2 Simple circulation as a ‘chemical process’ 7. The Hidden Time of the Commodity Section 3: The Time of the Process of Production 8.The Time of Surplus-Labour or Absolute Surplus-Value 8.1 Constant and variable capital, mass and rate of surplus-value 8.2 The working day 9. The Time of Surplus Labour or Relative Surplus-Value 9.1 Simple co-operation and the saving of time 9.2 The manufacture and the saving of time 9.3 Large-scale industry as a clock-making system . PART II: THE TIME OF CIRCULATION Introduction. Section 1: The Organic Movement of Capital 10. The Three Cycles/Circuits of Capital 10.1 The circuit of money capital . 10.2 The circuit of productive capital 10.3 The circuit of commodity capital 11. Capital as Syllogism 12. Capital in Marx, or ‘Life’ in Hegel 12.1 The Hegelian ‘Idea’ (generalities) 12.2 Hegelian ‘Life’ and the circuits of capital 12.3 ‘The living individual’ or ‘Shape’ and the circuit of productive capital 12.4 The ‘life process’ or ‘Assimilation’ and the circuit of commodity capital 12.5 The ‘Genus-process’ and the circuit of money capital Section 2: The Turnover Times of Capital 13. Value, Real Wealth and Circulation Time 14. Turnover Time and Fixed and Circulating Capital 15. The Labour, Production and Circulation Periods 15.1 Definition of the three periods 15.2 The turnover time and the quantitative relation between the different fractions of capital 16. The Annual Turnover of Social Capital (The Schemas of Reproduction) 16.1 Presentation of the schemas of reproduction 16.2 Interpretation of the schemas of reproduction PART III: ORGANIC TIME: THE UNITY OF THE TIME OF PRODUCTION AND THE TIME OF CIRCULATION Introduction Section 1: Surplus Value, Profit and Time 17. Cost, Wages, Profit and Illusions of Time 18. Value and Prices of Production (A Logical Interpretation) 18.1 Marx and the transformation of values into prices of production 18.2 The transformation as a syllogism Section 2: The Sub-Divisions of Profit or Fetishism Completely Realised 19. The Derived Forms of Industrial Capital 19.1 Merchant’s capital (Handelskapital) 19.2 Interest-bearing capital (Das zinstragende Kapital) 20. Ground Rent 21. The Trinity Formula Section 3: The Contradictions of the Capitalist Organisation of Time 22. The Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall 23. The Periodical Crises 23.1 Periodical crises and the industrial cycle 23.2 The long-term tendency of the rate of profit 24. The Structural Crises 24.1 Appendix to Chapter 24 Conclusion Bibliography Index