Labour, Consciousness, and Commodity: A Critical Synthesis of the Historical Specificity of Social Metabolism in the Capitalist Mode of Production

• Autor: Chacón, Adrián
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
• Repositorio: Revistas - Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:revistasinvestigacion.unmsm.edu.pe:article/30112
• Enlace del recurso: https://revistasinvestigacion.unmsm.edu.pe/index.php/espiral/article/view/30112
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Subjetividad; metabolismo social; mercancía; valor; capital; Subjectivity; social metabolism; commodity; value; Subjetividade; mercadoria

This essay sintetizes the general determinations of human social metabolism from its simplest form as living matter to its historical capitalist specificity. It argues that labour is the human form of transformation of the natural environment, and that capital, a private and independent mode of organization, is the current form of human sociality. The simplest determinations of the state as the political form of capital, acting with apparent neutrality in relation to social classes, are presented. This synthesis is based on contributions to the Marxian critique of political economy made in the region by Juan Iñigo Carrera and the Centro para la Investigación como Crítica Práctica (CICP).