Social Constitution and Fetishistic Social Domination in Marx, Lukács, Adorno, and Lefebvre

The Marxian theory of fetishism is usually interpreted as a theory of false consciousness, alienation, or reification pertaining to commodities or culture. This book reconstructs how Marx, Lukács, Adorno, and Lefebvre interpret and use the theory of the fetish to explain how capitalist social relations create a supra-individual, autonomous, and inverted form of social domination. These relations transform individuals into bearers of domination, thereby perpetuating capitalist society. The resulting reinterpretations of their respective social theories, and of the theory of the fetish, are crucial for a critical theory of capitalism today.

ISBN: 9798903931866

Publication date: May 28, 2027

Acknowledgements
Permissions

Introduction

Literature Review
1 Conceptual Typologies of Fetishism
2 Fetishism as False Consciousness
3 Fetishism as Lukácsian Reification
4 Fetishism as Alienation
5 The Classical Althusserian Conception of Fetishism
6 Value-Form Theory Conceptions of Fetishism
7 Conceptual Histories
8 Conceptual Continuity
9 Conceptual Discontinuity
10 Outline of the Book’s Main Argument

Part 1 Marx

1 Social Domination in the Young Marx
1 Introduction
2 Marx’s Conceptual Structure of Social Constitution and Social Domination
3 Marx’s Critique of the Philosophy of Right
4 Alienated Labour
5 The ‘German Ideology’
6 Marx’s Critique of Proudhon
7 Conclusion

2 Capital and the Critique of Political Economy
Introduction
1 A Critique of Political Economy
2 Marx’s Theory of Value
3 The Valorisation Process in Capital Volume I
4 The Form-Analysis
5 The General Formula of Capital, Surplus Value, Production, Wages, Accumulation, and Primitive Accumulation
6 Conclusion

3 Social Constitution, Fetishistic Social Domination, and the Fetish-Characteristic Properties of the Forms of Value
Introduction
1 The Fetish Characteristic Properties of Commodities
2 The Fetish Characteristic Properties of Money
3 The Fetish-Characteristic Properties of Capital
4 Conclusion

4 Social Constitution and Fetishistic Social Domination in the Trinity Formula
Introduction
1 Ambiguities and Gaps in the Trinity Formula
2 Contextualising the Trinity Formula
3 The Social Constitution of the Trinity Formula
4 Fetishistic Social Domination in the Trinity Formula
5 Conclusion

Part 2 Lukács

5 Lukács’s Hegelian Classical Marxist Interpretation of the Fetish
1 The Marxism of the 2nd International
2 The Early Lukács’s Theory of Social Constitution and Social Domination
3 Lukács’s Hegelian Classical Marxism
4 Conclusion

6 Reification as Dominating Social Mystification
1 Lukács’s Interpretation of Commodity Fetishism as Reification
2 Reification as Dominating Social Mystification
3 Reification as Dominating Social Mystification
4 The Constitution of Reified Totality
5 Conclusion

Part 3 Adorno

7 Adorno, the Critique of Political Economy, and the Fetishistic Properties of the Exchange Abstraction
Introduction
1 Adorno’s Interpretation of the Critique of Political Economy
2 Adorno’s Interpretation of the Fetishistic Properties of the Exchange Abstraction
3 Adorno’s Interpretation of Capital Accumulation and Crisis
4 Adorno’s Criticisms of Marx
5 The Fetishistic Properties of the Exchange Abstraction in Critical Theory
6 Conclusion

8 Social Constitution and Fetishistic Social Domination in the Negative Totality of Late Capitalism
Introduction
1 The Social Constitution of Negative Totality
2 Supra-Individual Objective Fetishistic Social Domination
3 Supra-Individual Subjective Fetishistic Social Domination
4 Critical Social Theory
5 Conclusion

Part 4 Lefebvre

9 Lefebvre, the Critique of Political Economy, and Fetishistic Concrete Abstraction
1 Lefebvre’s Non-Systematic Marxism
2 Fetishistic Concrete Abstraction
3 The Limits of Fetishistic Social Domination
4 Conclusion

10 Social Constitution and the Social Domination of Fetishistic Concrete Abstraction in Everyday Life, Cities, and Space
1 The Critique of Everyday Life
2 Cities and Urban Form
3 The Production of Space
4 Conclusion

Conclusion
Introduction
1 A New Perspective
2 Relevance for Contemporary Critical Theory
3 Towards a Critical Theory of Social Constitution and Fetishistic Social Domination

Bibliography
Index