MARX ON THE HOLODECK: THE USE OF THE TERM DETERMINATION IN CAPITAL

1.          INTRODUCTION

The term determination, especially in its appearance in concrete determinations, has been used repeatedly to characterize historical materialism. Often, the phrases in which it appears in the works of Marx and Engels have been fetishized and frozen in time, preventing a deeper understanding of it.

In order to contribute to a broader understanding, we turn to the processing of Capital, Volume I, using artificial intelligence, NotebookLM, for the purpose of an extensive, quasi-exhaustive processing of the uses of the term determination.

In this way, the different uses of this term in Marx's work will be made visible, in addition to being able to compare them and indicate better approximation for establishing their meaning. In this case, the most important finding is that the technical economical use of term determination creates a space for specifying its meaning.

On the other hand, the need for more in-depth studies on Marx and Marxism will benefit greatly from the use of AI while remaining aware of its limitations. For example, it is a very useful tool for data processing, but it fails in its analysis, in which it tends to repeat commonplaces on the subject.

2.          METHODOLOGY

Karl Marx's Capital, Volume 1 has been uploaded to NotebookLM. I have used Paul Reitter's most recent English translation. (Marx, 2024) Next, a search is conducted for occurrences of the term "determination," along with its variants. Only Marx's text was used; prologues, introductions, indexes, or comments by other authors were not considered, and no external references to other authors were used in the analysis.

A prompt is entered to classify occurrences of the term according to its use in Capital. The data is then cleaned and labeled, identifying variables according to their use in economic and quantitative techniques, other technical uses, and general uses.

In addition, references taken from works other than Marx's Capital are removed, as are comments taken from external sources that refer to a frequent interpretation of the term determination.

A database is constructed that includes numbering, field, information found, page, and citation. The citations allow the exact location from which they were taken to be viewed in NotebookLM.

3.          RESULTS

The processing of the information yielded the following results: a summary of findings, overview (not included here), three specific tables for each classification category.         

Summary of findings.

               Technical, economic, and quantitative use:

This use refers to measurements of magnitudes, price calculations, mathematical economic laws, and financial limits.

General and descriptive use.

Use to describe physical processes, identify facts, or external circumstances without deep technical meaning.

Social, historical, and logical use.

This refers to the logical structure of categories, social laws of work, and the historical determination of social life.

 

Tabla 1: Technical, Economic, and Quantitative Use

#	Information Found	Textual Quote	Page
1	Critique of Smith on the determination of value.	Smith confuses the fact that value is determined by the quantity of labor expended to produce a commodity	24 (Nota 16)
2	Polarity relationship between forms of value.	The relative value-form and the equivalent form are a pair, inseparable and mutually determining.	26
3	Section title on form determination.	The Quantitative Determination of the Relative Value-Form	30
4	Defining value in terms of magnitude.	The term “value” is used here for quantitatively determined value, i.e., magnitude of value	31 (Nota 20)
5	Magnitude of the value of the jacket.	The coat’s magnitude of value remains determined, as before, by the labor-time needed to produce it	31
6	Absence of measurement in the equivalent form.	But the equivalent form of a commodity doesn’t contain any quantitative determination of value.	33
7	Critique of Bailey on conceptual determinations.	exploded all conceptual determinations of value.	39 (Nota 25)
8	Scientific identification of the magnitude of value.	identify how the magnitude of value is determined.	52
9	Essential constituents that form value.	these relations contain all the essential determinants of value.	53
10	Criticism of the use of value to measure other commodities.	use it to determine the value of other commodities.	56 (Nota 33)
11	Gold's Role in Price Calculation.	when it is a factor in the determination of prices	76 (Nota 12)
12	Money supply defined by the sum of prices.	the amount of the means of circulation is determined by the aggregate sum of prices to be realized when all commodities are sold.	92
13	A factor that fixes the mass of money in circulation.	that determines the amount of money put into the circulation process	94
14	Relationship between means of circulation and prices.	the amount of the means of circulation determines prices.	97 (Nota 30)
15	Reference to a defined monetary sum (quote from North).	There is required for carry ing on the trade of the nation, a determinate sum of specifick Money	107 (Nota 46)
16	Price of products determined by mass.	price of which is determined in general and without regard to particular circumstances	185 (Nota 8)
17	The Laws Governing the Value of Labor Power.	three laws determine labor-power's value	474
18	Limit for new value generated in production.	How much the amount of surplus-value produced can change is determined by labor-power's new value limit.	474
19	Technical question about the value of the working day.	How, then, would the value of a twelve-hour workday be determined?	492
20	Quantity of work fixed by the provisions (Note).	the quantity of labour and not the price of it [i.e., nominal daily or weekly wages], that is determined by the price of provisions	502 (Nota 4)
21	Economic ratio conditioned by the environment.	(and is determined by circumstances that we don’t need to explicate any further here).	542
22	Title on the extension of the accumulation.	The Circumstances that Determine the Extent of Accumulation	549
23	Method of scientific exposition of magnitudes.	the determination of magnitudes of value is expressly foregrounded	702
24	Quantitative determination of relative form.	The relative value-form’s quantitative determinacy	736
25	Absence of determination in the equivalent form.	Quantitative determinacy is not contained in the equivalent-form	736

Ilustración 1Elaboración propia. 2026

 

Tabla 2: General Use, Descriptive

#	Information Found	Textual Quote	Page
26	Utility defined by the properties of the body.	Determined by the properties of a commodity’s body, it would not exist without them.	14
27	Reference to an already established weight.	iron whose weight has already been determined.	33
28	Action of Setting the Weight of a Physical Body.	body whose weight has to be determined.	34
29	Times set by the nature of the process.	spans of time, determined by the nature of the labor process itself	300
30	Additional Workforce Factors.	identified additional determining factors	473

lustración 2 Elaboración propia

 

Tabla 3: Social, Historical, and Logical Use

#	Information Found	Textual Quote	Page
31	Logical determinations of reflection (King/Subject).	Such reflective determinations are a curious thing.	34 (Nota 22)
32	Social background governing accidental appearance.	the background that determines— and also differs essentially from— this accidental appearance shines through right away.	40
33	The non-arbitrariness of value magnitudes.	labor products’ magnitudes of value no longer seem to be determined arbitrarily.	52
34	Persistence of the Cosmic Form of Determination.	hardly clears away the thingly form of their determination, which remains in place as much as before.	52
35	Production determines social life (Note).	mode of production of material life determines the general processes of social, political, and intellectual life.	58 (Nota 35)
36	Capital as an organizer of the social structure.	form that capital has when it determines the economic organization of modern society.	137

Ilustración 3 Elaboración propia. 2026

 

4.          DISCUSSION

The summary of the results indicates the predominance of the general, descriptive, and quantitative use of the term determination; this word, in German and Spanish, has the ambiguity of referring to common and ordinary facts, such as mentioning "a certain amount," or a specific thing we are looking for; and, on the other hand, it acquires a technical semantic dimension, where its precise meaning depends on the scientific field, as is the case with determinants in mathematics; and, in this case, its use in political economy. This technical meaning can also take on a philosophical and logical nuance.

The use of term determination in Marx's political economy takes on a functional and, therefore, operational dimension. Above all, it is a calculation tool that establishes the variables that allow the value of a function to be determined, in the same way that force is measured by the product of mass and acceleration; thus, surplus value is determined by the amount of unpaid labor incorporated into the commodity.

In occurrences 4 and 12, the technical economic and quantitative use becomes fully visible, especially in the form of a function; thus, value always refers to a certain magnitude of value; and, as the commentary says: the quantity of means of circulation is directly proportional to the sum of prices.

4	Defining value in terms of magnitude.	The term “value” is used here for quantitatively determined value, i.e., magnitude of value	31 (Nota 20)
12	Money supply defined by the sum of prices.	the amount of the means of circulation is determined by the aggregate sum of prices to be realized when all commodities are sold.	92

 

The general and descriptive use of the term determination does not present any major difficulty; it simply refers to everyday usage, to refer to things that are not specified, but could be: a certain amount of rice. In occurrences 27 and 28, this general use, part of ordinary language, is clearly seen; that is, a given weight of a body. 

27	Reference to an already established weight.	iron whose weight has already been determined.	33
28	Action of Setting the Weight of a Physical Body.	body whose weight has to be determined.	34

 Social, historical, and logical usage is present in Capital in a more occasional and marginal way; it certainly reaffirms central theses of historical materialism but mentions them as complementary to the analyses it is carrying out. Let us review these few occurrences. In this case, I am providing the complete quotation so that the context in which the term determination appears can be seen.

 In occurrence 31, Marx refers ironically to Hegel's determinations of reflection, although he highlights their correlative nature, in which each of the terms implies the existence of the other.

31

Such reflective determinations are a curious thing. A man is a king only because other people behave toward him as his subjects. Of course, they believe themselves to be his subjects because he is their king. (34. Note 22) 

Occurrence 32 shows how the use of determination is linked to the dialectic of phenomena and their appearances, and between essences and accidents; an approach that will predominate in Capital, that is, one that relates phenomena to their manifestations or expressions. 

32

Twenty yards of linen = 1 coat: In this first form, it might be purely accidental that the two commodities can be exchanged in a certain quantitative ratio. In the second form, in contrast, the background that determines—and also differs essentially from—this accidental appearance shines through right away.

 These two occurrences, 33 and 34, which are in the same paragraph, the determination is used technically in the field of economics; it is included in Table 3 solely to show the causal relationships between the functions and their variables. Here, determined means that it is not arbitrary.

 

33 y 34

Once this secret is discovered, labor products’ magnitudes of value no longer seem to be determined arbitrarily. But this hardly clears away the thingly form of their determination, which remains in place as much as before. (52)

 Only these two final occurrences refer to the general concept of historical materialism and one of its foundations: the mode of production determines society in all its aspects (35); and, specifically, capital determines the economic organization of society (36).

35

My position is that each particular mode of production and the relations of production that go with it at each particular moment—in short, “the economic structure of society”—constitutes “the real foundation on which a legal and political superstructure arises, and that definite forms of social consciousness correspond to that foundation.” In my view, “the mode of production of material life determines the general processes of social, political, and intellectual life.” (58. Nota 35)

 36

This, of course, is why our analysis of capital’s elementary form hasn’t yet said anything about merchant capital and usury capital, those famous and, so to speak, antediluvian forms of capital, and has instead focused on the form that capital has when it determines the economic organization of modern society. (137)

 These theses of Marx are well known and have been extensively debated. However, the aim here is to establish how Marx understands the notion of determination considering these findings. The direct source is Hegel's Science of Logic, specifically the part dealing with determinations of reflection, which will be used to write chapter 1 of Capital; but in Marx's hands, it undergoes major transformations. (Hegel, 2011)

Hegel's use of the term determination has a logical status, taking into account that the real and the rational ultimately end up being part of the same determination of being; that is, the ontological and epistemological planes collapse into one, which narrates the history of the spirit through its multiple manifestations.

In Marx, the two planes separate again, and thus the concept of determination ceases to be a logical category and becomes an epistemological category. In other words, the uses indicated in Table 3 must be interpreted in accordance with the use in Table 1.

The concept of determination, as it appears in the thesis of the mode of production as the determinant of all social reality, must be understood from a functional and operational perspective; that is, to investigate the specific way in which the phenomenon called capital structures the economy of society, which is Marx's task in Capital. In fact, Marx will adopt a phenomenological approach to say that capital manifests and expresses itself in the economy of society, which it structures and provides with a foundation.

Marx moves away from Hegelian logicism and hence the widespread predominance of the economic and operational use of the term, which should serve as a guide for interpreting the appearances of the term in other contexts and in other works. This in no way invalidates historical materialism but rather shows it in its true dimension, which is to describe and explain in what specific way, through what processes and structures, this determination is fulfilled: the mode of production determines society.

 It is not enough to simply state this central thesis; we must also show how it actually works, as Marx does in Capital, where we see how the economic processes of capitalism are expressed in personifications, which are social classes, and how these represent the world according to their specific interests.

5.          CONCLUSION.

In conclusion, the term determination in Capital shifts from its logicist version to an epistemological understanding, which allows us to describe how capital works and its relationship with a society's economy, and thus acquires, preeminently, an operational dimension.

Processing using this AI, NotebookLM, made it possible to show the uses of the term and establish a correlation between them, as well as to identify the main trends. This made it possible to clarify the types of use of the term determination, with its greatest weight falling on technical economical use, which has a functional and operational connotation.

Bibliography

Hegel. (2011). La Ciencia de la Lógica (Vol. 2). (F. Duque, Trad.) Madrid: Abada Editores/ Uam Ediciones.

Marx, K. (2024). Capital (Vol. I). (P. Reitter, Trad.) Princeton: Princeton University Press.