Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / John Grumley -- Preface / János Kis -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction: Marxist Economics Divided -- 2 The Antinomies of the Concept of Use-Value -- 3 Socialism in the World History of Economic Formations -- 4 Difficulties with the Idea of a Centralized Labour-Time Economy -- 5 Scarcity and Abundance -- 6 Is Critical Economic Theory Possible at All? -- 7 The Problem of Radical Needs -- 8 Is It Possible to Realise the “Association of Free Producers”? -- Appendices -- Appendix (A) The Place of Critical Economic Theory in the Development of Marx’s Thought -- Appendix (B) Historical Types of the Bourgeois Critique of Marxian Economic Theory -- Annotated Notes -- References -- Index.

A masterpiece of critical theory available in English for the first time in jargon-free language for philosophers, political economists, and the general public interested in Marxism, capitalism and socialism.

This book is a masterpiece of critical theory. It provides an illuminating and original meta-theoretical account of Marx’s general views of critical economic theory. Sympathetic to the general aims of Marx, it also excavates the internal contradictions of the Marxian theory with unparalleled care. Written in Hungarian in the early 1970s, it was censored by the communist authorities immediately after its completion. Its belated publication in English signifies a major boon for research scholars in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, political economy, Marxism, intellectual history, and Eastern European studies.

Description based on print version record.