Das Kapital and preparatory work (especially regarding the theory of surplus value), the first volume appeared in 1867 as "The Production Process of Capital". After Marx's death in 1883, from manuscripts and the first volume Engels introduced Volume II: "The Circulation Process of Capital" in 1885; and Volume III: "The Overall Process of Capitalist Production" in 1894. These three volumes are collectively known as "Das Kapital". "Capital, Volume I" (1867) is a critical analysis of political economy, meant to reveal the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production, how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production and of the
Das Kapital Democritus (circa 460–370 BC) and Epicurus (341–270 BC). The logical architecture of "Das Kapital" is derived in part from the "Politics" and the "Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle, including the fundamental distinction between use value and exchange value, the "syllogisms" (C-M-C' and M-C-M') for simple commodity circulation and the circulation of value as capital. Moreover, the description of machinery, under capitalist relations of production, as "self-acting automata" derives from Aristotle’s speculations about inanimate instruments capable of obeying commands as the condition for the abolition of slavery. In the nineteenth century, Marx’s research of the available politico-economic literature required twelve years, usually