ABSTRACT
The strange thing about excavating the histoi-y of the concept of class is how it has a remarkably long and dense relationship to other concepts. First, class is ahvays closely entlvined with different forms of exchange as an idea in its various manifestations (e.g. markets and capitalism as the contemporary variant). Second, it is ahvays and intimately connected to the concept of the self. Third, it can only be kno\vn through other categorizations. Fourth, it ahvays embeds the interests of the theorist in the perspective taken on it, and fifth, it al\vays has a moral value and is connected to systems of moral evaluation just as much as it is to systems of economic exchange.
