Abstract

In these brief remarks I propose a reading of the “Fragment on Machines” in Marx's Grundrisse. This reading recognizes in the “Fragment” the central problematic of the Grundrisse's fundamental analyses of the relation between objectified labor and living labor, the meaning of this relationship within a comprehensive interpretation of the theory and, finally, the meaning of the contradiction within the relation itself which is essential for the comprehension and critique of the entire capitalist mode of production. Here this “Fragment” will be analyzed from the viewpoint of the criticism of fetishism, thus indicating some of the Fragment's ambiguous elements.