The paper offers a novel interpretation and affirmation of the opening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental but neglected question of why labour is the substance of value. Marx's arguments require that two philosophical threads, often separated in the literature on value, be woven...

Marx's critique of abstraction -- Capitalism's process of self-mystification -- Marx's theoretical process I : abstraction and representation -- Marx's theoretical process II : historicizing the dialectic -- Mediation as allegory : reading political economy through the artwork of Geoffrey Farmer...