Subversive thought is none other than the cunning of reason when confronted with a social reality in which the poor and miserable are required to sustain the illusion of fictitious wealth. Yet, this subsidy is absolutely necessary in existing society, to prevent its implosion. The critique of political economy is a thoroughly subversive business. It rejects the appearance of economic reality as a natural thing, argues that economy has not independent existence, expounds economy as political economy, and rejects as conformist rebellion those anti-capitalist perspectives that derive their rationality from the existing conceptuality of society. Subversion focuses on human conditions. Its critical subject is society unaware of itself. This book develops Marx's critique of political economy as negative theory of society. It does not conform to the patterns of the world and demands that society rids itself of all the muck of ages and founds itself anew.

DedicationAcknowledgments 1. Introduction: Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy Section I: On the Critique of Political Economy as a Critical Social Theory2. Political Economy and Social Constitution: On the Meaning of Critique3. Society as Subject and Society as Object: On Social Praxis Section II: Value: On Social Wealth and Class4. Capital and Labour: Primitive Accumulation and the Force of Value5. Class and Struggle: On the false Society6. Time is Money: On Abstract Labour Section III: Capital, World Market and State7. State, World Market and Society8. On the State of Political Economy: Political Form and the Force of Law Section IV Anti-Capitalism: Theology and Negative Practice9. Anti-Capitalism and the Elements of Antisemitism: On Theology and Real Abstractions 10. Conclusion: On the Elements of Subversion and Negative ReasonSelected BibliographyIndex