Conclusion: The Limits to Not-Capital

Beyond a review of the findings developed in the rest of the book, the concluding chapter examines what happened to Marx’s notions of not-capital/value between the Grundrisse, where they first appear, and Capital, where they are apparently dropped. It shows that while what Marx intended with these notions in the earlier text is retained, the later presentation is undertaken at a higher level of conceptual sophistication, such that they no longer have a place in their original form. The value theory present in Capital should therefore be taken as a guide to reading the Grundrisse, and not vice versa. As such, further development of Marx’s critique of political economy as a critical social theory critical of labour needs to take off from the twofold conception of labour found in Capital, rather than the notion of labour as not-capital found in his unpublished manuscripts.