ABSTRACT
In the past few decades, scholarship on Karl Marx’s writings continues to give a profound sense of critical open-endedness in his ideas. Marx never stopped working on Capital until his death in 1883. After the publication of the first edition of Capital, Volume I, in 1867, Marx continued developing his ideas with characteristic rigor and reflexivity in ever larger and more interconnected areas and in response to changing political context of the time. All these in different ways impacted Marx’s intellectual development – hence also the development of Capital during his life. The French edition of Capital, translated by Joseph Roy and revised directly by Marx, marks a point in the evolution of Capital that did not end with Marx’s death. In fact, this process extends, in different forms and intensities, to today. This chapter examines the debates on the significance of the French edition since its publication in 1872–75 in Germany, France, Anglophone countries, and Japan. It traces the contours of the debates within the changing historical context in the last 150 years. In the background of such an extended perspective, it critically studies the revival of the debate in recent years and identifies pathways for future research on Le Capital.
