Ulrich Steinvorth’s Analytical Interpretation of Marx’s Dialectics

The Western school of analytic Marxism generally opposes dialectics. However, Ulrich Steinvorth, a representative scholar of German analytic Marxism, uniquely presents a completely different opinion. He unequivocally recognizes and praises Marx’s dialectics, providing a scientific analytic interpretation of Marx’s dialectical thought through analytic methods. He demonstrates that Marx’s dialectics is a scientific method compatible with analytic approaches. Based on the logical empiricism of the Vienna Circle, Steinvorth interprets the conceptual analysis method used by Marx in Capital as the “model-building method,” presenting an analytic representation of Marx’s dialectical analysis of the exchange process, commodity circulation, and the capitalist economy. From an analytic perspective, he interprets Marx’s dialectics as a continuous analysis of the compatibility conditions between two necessary attributes of the research object. Through rigorous and meticulous logical analysis and model-building, Steinvorth successfully refutes the traditional analytic Marxism’s misunderstanding of Marx’s dialectics. He thoroughly elucidates the scientific, critical, and revolutionary nature of Marx’s dialectics, effectively verifying the scientific nature of Marx’s analysis of the laws of capitalist economic operation and the accuracy of his prediction of the inevitable destruction of the capitalist economy. Nevertheless, compared to Marx’s rich dialectical thought, Steinvorth’s theoretical perspective remains narrow. If he could further expand his analytic perspective, his argument would be more convincing.