Capital Quote by David Harvey
““One of the curious things about our educational system, I would note, is that the better trained you are in a discipline, the less used to dialectical method you're likely to be. In fact, young children are very dialectical; they see everything in motion, in contradictions and transformations. We have to put an immense effort into training kids out of being good dialecticians. Marx wants to recover the intuitive power of the dialectical method and put it to work in understanding how everything is in process, everything is in motion. He doesn't simply talk about labor; he talks about the labor process. Capital is not a thing, but rather a process that exists only in motion. When circulation stops, value disappears and the whole system comes tumbling down.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism, 2010
Education often suppresses dialectical thinking, turning students into linear analysts, while Marxist dialectics view reality as dynamic processes.
In simple terms: Schools teach straight‑line thinking, but reality is constantly changing.
Key Takeaway
Promote critical, dialectical thinking in learning.
Themes
education
marxism
dialectics
critical theory
Mood
reflective
analytical
Type
theoretical
educational
When to use this quote
- curriculum design
- teacher training
- student workshops
Key Concepts
process philosophy
materialist analysis
systemic change
Questions to Reflect On
- How can dialectical methods be integrated into classrooms?
- What benefits arise from viewing society as a process?
A Different Perspective
Implementation can be resisted by entrenched curricula.
![“Well, first of all I think that we have to be careful with terms like the working class, obviously. When [Karl] Marx wrote about the working class he was writing about something much more bounded than we're talking about.” quote by Bill Ayers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/38d/bill-ayers-1848_be-careful_well-first-of-all-i-think-that-we-have-t_2925602.jpg)
