Beyond the Hidden Abode: A Critique of the Labor Theory of Value

Abstract

This dissertation critically examines Marx's labor theory of value (LTV) through an analysis of four foundational concepts within Marxist political economy: labor, subsistence, money, and competition. I argue that while Marx sought to develop a dynamic theory of value grounded in social relations rather than natural or fixed premises, the labor theory of value ultimately undermines these ambitions. In attempting to explain the quantitative relationship between value and price through labor-time, Marx's theory repeatedly relies on static assumptions that conflict with his broader methodological commitments to immanence and social holism. I engage closely with the value-form interpretation of Marx, particularly the work of Isaak Illich Rubin and Michael Heinrich. Value-form theorists reinterpret abstract labor and value as socially constituted categories produced through exchange and the totality of capitalist relations rather than as fixed substances embodied in commodities. I argue that these readings illuminate the most dynamic dimensions of Marx's critique by emphasizing abstraction, interdependence, and the social character of labor. At the same time, however, value-form approaches remain constrained by their continued commitment to the labor theory of value itself, especially through residual reliance on concepts such as subsistence and socially necessary labor-time.