The first work to which Marx turned when he “eagerly grasped the opportunity to withdraw from the public stage to my study” (1859) was The Philosophy of Right (Hegel, 1821).
In that work, Hegel casts modern society as the identity of three ethical realms. 1. Civil and criminal law protecting the rights of persons, 2. the conscience of subjects pursuing their own welfare, and 3. the law and political system governing the duty of citizens. This approach allows all the complex contradictions of modern society to be represented
In writing Capital, Marx cast the modern economy as the identity of three ethical realms. 1. Owners of commodities exchanging their products at value, 2. Owners of capital buying and selling their products at cost of production plus profit, and 3. finance capitalists loaning their capital at interest. This approach allows the contradictions and class conflicts in modern capitalism to be represented.
Why is this important and interesting fact ever discussed?