As bases ontológicas da individualidade humana e o processo de individuação na sociabilidade capitalista: um estudo a partir do Livro Primeiro de O Capital de Karl Marx

Abstract

The study, which resulted in the present thesis, was developed in the context of the Research Group Marxism, Education and Class Struggle of the Graduate Program in Education of Federal University of Ceará (UFC), in articulation with the Research Group Work, Education and Class Struggle of the Institute for Labor Movement Studies and Research (IMO) of Ceará State University (UECE). The central question of the study is focused upon the treatment bestowed by Marx to the problem of individuality in The Capital, examining, therein, to what extent the understanding of appearance and essence relationships stated by Marx, clarifies the categorical complex of individuality and its connections with human upcoming. In Marx, there isn’t and there couldn’t be a scientific method previously established, once knowledge starting point could only be the subject to be known. In this sense, the study demanded the immanent capturing of The Capital, or, in other words, the understanding of Marx by Marx himself, seeking to reproduce from within Marxian writings, the fundamental elements intertwined to the complex of individuality determinations. The text is organized in two chapters. The first one presents the compound of Brazilian Marxist productions, which deals with the subject of individuality presented in Marx’s works which precede The Capital. The second one condenses the results of the research about human individuality in The Capital - Book I, Volumes I and II. In that chapter, there are exposed the analytical nodules upon which Marx poses the problem of individuality, which are understood to be the following: the ontological bases of human individuality; the individualization process in capitalist society; and individuality and human upcoming. The study indicates that human individuality is treated in Marx’s works as a categorial complex, which designates both, a given form of existence in the course of historical process of constitution of social being; and the singular way of being of each unique individual, that is, the way which a given form of existence is appropriated by each individual. It is concluded, moreover, that Marx, in The Capital, not only reveals the modern society economic laws, but the essence of individuality which is produced within the complex of Capital. Such individuality expresses the substance, contradictions, and antagonisms established with this very form of sociability, considering that, on one side, individuality became undeniably richer and more complex in the course of history; and, on the other side, it is denied as such, because summed up within the context of economic relations, to represent the personifications of the captialist and the worker, respectively. The study finally points out the follow-up studies which should be developed by the author in the future, such as the analysis of the next two volumes of The Capital, for the purpose of (1) unveiling the relations between the singular and universal dimensions in the complex of the world of men determinations; and (2) contributing to the advancement of a Marxian theory of individuality, a crucial step towards the comprehension of socio-historical process, and, therefore, that of human upcoming.