Andrea Micocci is Professore Straordinario of Political Economy, Link Campus University, Rome, Italy.

In order to understand the resilience of capitalism as a mode of production, social organization, and an intellectual system, it is necessary to explore its intellectual development and underlying structure. A Historical Political Economy of Capitalism argues that capitalism is based on a dominant intellectuality: a metaphysics. It proposes the construction of a history-based "critique of political economy", capable of revealing the poverty of capitalism's intellectual logic and of its application in practice. This involves a reconsideration of several classical thinkers, including Smith, Marx, Berkeley, Locke, Hobbes, Hume, and Rousseau.

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1 On Capitalism

1.2 This Book's Method

1.3 Clearing the Ground

1.4 A Historical Political Economy of Capitalism: After Metaphysics

CHAPTER 2 - CAPITALISM AS WE KNOW IT AND ITS METAPHYSICS

2.1 Introduction

2.2. Classical Approaches.

2.3 Capitalist Metaphysics

2.4 Liberty

2.5 Political Economy

2.6 Conclusions

Notes

CHAPTER 3 - NATURE AND LIBERTY

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Capitalism, Regularity, Isolation

3.3 Humans and Nature

3.4 Nature Out There: Liberty

3.5 Human Understanding

3.6 Conclusions

Notes

CHAPTER 4 - ECONOMIC DISCIPLINE

4.1 Introduction

4.2 The Discourse of Economics

4.3 Economic Arguments As Justification

4.4 Present-Day Trends

4.5 Materialistic Political Economy

4.6 Conclusions

Notes

CHAPTER 5 - SILENCE

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Questions of Philosophy

5.3 Individual, Society and Evil

5.4 Materialistic Political Economy As History

5.5 Emancipation

5.6 Conclusions

Notes

CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Right and Wrong

6.3 A Historical Political Economy

6.4 Liberty As Silence

6.5 Final Considerations