Reification, value, and emancipation: Revisiting the normative core of Marx’s critique of capitalism

Nikolaos Nikolakakis, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Critical Sociology

Publication Date

10-24-2025

Abstract

This article reexamines the normative dimension of Marx’s critique of capitalism, arguing that value theory and reification carry intrinsic ethical implications. Against readings that detach Marxism from questions of justice, it deploys immanent critique to show that freedom and autonomy are not external ideals but contradictions immanent to capitalist society. Through analyses of alienation, the value-form, and capital’s apparent autonomy, it shows how capitalist relations invert human purposes: value appears to act, while agency is rendered derivative. Reconnecting these processes to Marx’s emancipatory horizon, the article reconstructs the normative core of his critique and clarifies its relevance to domination, including platform labor, digital commodification, and ecological crisis. Rather than moralizing, Marx’s method grounds critique in capitalism’s own promises and failures. In doing so, it provides a structural diagnosis of domination and a situated horizon of emancipation oriented toward collective self-determination and the recovery of time, cooperation, and purposive human freedom.

ISSN

0896-9205

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

capitalism, Marxism, normative ethics, political economy, social justice

Scopus ID

105019800860

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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