Capital is often depicted as an all-encompassing and abstract social force which seeks to “subsume” all human life. But what is “subsumption” and how might it be resisted?
Tracing the discourse of subsumption through the work of Kant, Hegel, Marx and the critical Marxist tradition, this book offers a materialist framework for analysing capitalist power. Saenz de Sicilia argues that capitalist subsumption operates at three distinct yet interrelated levels: exchange, production, and reproduction, with each characterised by distinct logics of domination and resistance. Conflicts over subsumption at each of these levels lie at the heart of capitalism’s struggle to determine the shapes of human social life.
A major intervention into debates surrounding the historical trajectories of capitalism, Subsumption in Kant, Hegel and Marx: From the Critique of Reason to the Critique of Society systematically refutes the influential thesis that we are now in a stage of "total" capitalist subsumption which leaves no space of refuge or resistance.
ISBN: 9798888905586
Publication date: November 11, 2025
“In his brilliant genealogy of the enigmatic notion of 'subsumption', from Kant to Hegel to Marx, Saenz de Sicilia provides an important contribution to the debate on the 'reversal' of German Idealism into Historical Materialism. He also offers precious insights into the 'hidden abode' of capitalist exploitation, more relevant than ever. I highly recommend his book.” — Etienne Balibar, author of The Philosophy of Marx
“What does it mean to live under capitalism? To have been sometime, someplace forcibly brought into it. Saenz de Sicilia lifts the technical term 'subsumption' out of German idealism, where it lolls among reflective categories of thought and ontology. He shows how in Marx subsumption becomes a social operation by which non-capitalist things are, provisionally and not without resistance, obliged to serve capital’s bidding. In this obligation lies a chance to be otherwise.” — Paul North, editor of Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1
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