Phantom-like objectivitiy (gespenstige Gegenständlichkeit)

Capital is of a very abysmal nature. Marx had to develop his own ontology to grasp it. He had to speak the 'language of commodities', had to empathize with the 'soul of capital'; had to learn about its fetishism and had to resist being seduced by 'metaphysical subtleties' or 'theological niceties'. Thus he had to understand the phantom-like reality of social practice as both manifest and deluding, both materially concrete and loaded with abstract universals. Today, we cannot understand Marx without recon-structing the structure of his social ontology. Without doing so we might even be incapable of critically relating to the nature of society as such. So, what is the specific form of being of social facts? How do we have to conceive of them - and (even more importantly) how do they conceive of us?