Paul B. Paolucci, Ph.D. (2001, University of Kentucky) is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Kentucky University. His books on Karl Marx include Marx’s Scientific Dialectics (Brill, 2007), Marx and the Politics of Abstraction (Brill, 2011), and Acquiring Modernity (Brill, 2019).

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsIntroduction1 A Provocation and a Challenge2 The Nature of the Evidence3 Uncovering the Evidence4 The Method of the Book1 Marx’s Method of Successive Abstractions1 Introduction2 Marx and the Experimental Model2.1 Comparisons, Lumping, Splitting, and Further Comparisons2.2 General Rules for Taxonomy and Comparisons3 The Method of Successive Abstractions3.1 The General Abstract, the Specific Abstract, the General Concrete, and the Specific Concrete3.2 Abstracting Successively, Controlled Comparison, Lumping/Splitting3.3 Re-abstracting in Marx’s Method3.4 Marx’s Method of Successive Abstractions as a Microscope4 Using Comparisons in the Method of Successive Abstractions4.1 Comparisons across Successive Abstractions4.1.1 General Abstract to General Abstract4.1.2 General Abstract to Specific Abstract4.1.3 General Abstract to General Concrete4.1.4 General Abstract to Specific Concrete4.1.5 Specific Abstract to Specific Abstract4.1.6 Specific Abstract to General Concrete4.1.7 Specific Abstract to Specific Concrete4.1.8 General Concrete to General Concrete4.1.9 General Concrete to Specific Concrete4.1.10 Specific Concrete to Specific Concrete4.2 Additional Guidelines for Re-abstraction and Comparison5 Summary and Discussion2 Marx’s Method and Modes of Production1 Why Marx’s Presentation is a Problem and How to Understand it2 Modes of Production through the Method of Successive Abstractions2.1 Social Development of Productive Forces2.2 The Subject of Production2.2.1 The Natural Economy2.2.2 Exchange, the Commodity-Form, the Money-Form, and Trade2.2.3 Hoarding2.2.4 Merchant’s Capital2.3 Terms of Labor: Non-forced and Forced2.4 Historical Surplus-value Relations: Rent, Taxes, and Usury2.4.1 Landed Property and Rent2.4.2 Taxes2.4.3 Usury3 Marx’s Modes of Production3.1 Non-class versus Class Systems3.2 Primitive Communism3.3 The Ancient Mode of Production3.4 The Asiatic Mode of Production3.5 The Feudal Mode of Production3.5.1 Trade, Usury, Money-Rent, and the Transition to Capitalism3.5.2 Landed Property and the Transition to Capitalism3.5.3 The Creation of Free Wage-Laborers and the Transition to Capitalism3.5.4 Colonialism and the Transition to Capitalism3.6 The Capitalist Mode of Production4 Discussion3 Slavery, Capitalist Development, and the Method of Successive Abstractions1 Introduction2 Slavery and the Method of Successive Abstractions2.1 Ancient and Asiatic Labor: Plebeians, Peasants, and Serfs Compared to Slavery2.2 Feudal Peasant and Serf-Corvée Labor Compared to Slavery in General2.3 Slavery Compared to Wage-Labor2.4 Comparing Slavery, Serfdom, and Wage-Labor with Each Other2.5 Comparing Slavery between Systems: Rome v. the Americas2.6 Comparing Slavery within Systems: British Slavery v. American Slavery3 Capitalism and the Method of Successive Abstractions3.1 Capitalism and Production in General3.2 Capitalism and Class Systems3.3 Capitalism as a System3.3.1 Capitalism and Its Historical Stages4 Some Methodological Provisos and Observations5 Discussion4 Successive Abstractions and Religion (I): A Conventional Approach1 Introduction2 Religion and the Method of Successive Abstractions3 Discussion5 Successive Abstractions and Religion (II): A Historical Materialist Approach1 Introduction2 Marx’s Method and Religion3 Religion, Levels of Generality, and the Method of Successive Abstractions3.1 Humans as Animals3.2 Humans as Humans3.3 Society in General: Identities3.4 Society in General: Differences4 Summary and Some Implications of the General Model4.1 Religion and the Earliest Societies4.2 Religion from Class Societies in General to Feudalism4.3 Religion and Capitalism in General: Contradictions and Changes4.3.1 Religion and Capitalism’s Historical Development4.3.2 Polarization and Religious Crises4.3.3 Religion as Marketplace Consumption4.3.4 The New Generic God5 Discussion6 An Essay on Religion1 A Provocation2 Morality and the Meaning of Life: A Naturalist and Historical Materialist Perspective3 Unreliable Narrators, Hostile Witnesses, and Evasive Measures4 On the Religious Proposition of God’s Existence5 What Is to Be Done?6 Capital Worship: The Ascendant Religion7 Reflections and a Critical Evaluation1 Our Difficulties in Understanding Marx2 Omissions, Limitations, Mistakes, Objections, and Final ThoughtsAppendix to Chapter 6ReferencesIndex