The Value-Price Transformation in Marx and the Problem of Crisis

TLDR: In this paper, the authors argue that the exploration of the essence constitutes a precondition for understanding the world of appearances, and that the concrete appearances are important to Marx not only because they are the starting point and the medium for understanding real movement, but also, they are, rather, the very objects that Marx ultimately wants to identify and understand in their interconnection.

Abstract: The task of all science is the exploration and understanding of the concretely given totality of phenomena, of their interconnections and their mutations. The difficulty of this task is that phenomena are not immediately identical with the essence of things. The exploration of the essence constitutes a precondition for understanding the world of appearances. Marx, in opposition to vulgar economics, seeks to identify the ‘hidden essence’ and the ‘inner connection’ of economic reality;1 this is not to say that he is not interested in concrete appearances. On the contrary! Only appearances present themselves to consciousness, which means that – purely methodologically – their hidden, essential ‘core’ can only be accessed through the analysis of appearances.2 But the concrete appearances are important to Marx not only because they are the starting point and the medium for understanding the ‘real movement’. They are, rather, the very objects that Marx ultimately wants to identify and understand in their interconnection. By no means does he simply want to restrict himself to the exploration of the ‘essence’ while ignoring the phenomena. In fact, the essence, once identified, has the function of enabling us to comprehend concrete appearances. This is why Marx strives to find ‘the law which governs these phenomena’, i.e. ‘the law of their variation’.3 Only phenomena in themselves and without the context of the ‘hidden essence of things’ are, according to Marx, incomprehensible and ‘prima