Recent forms of Analytic Marxism have tried to bridge the Marxian framework of analysis of Capital, and specifically, abstract domination, with the resources one may find in the so-called Pittsburgh School of Philosophy (Sellars, Brandom, McDowell). Two of the recent attempts, one by Justin Evans- "Capitalism as a space of reasons- Analytic, Neo-Hegelian Marxism", and one by Jacob McNulty "Frankfurt School Critical Theory as Transcendental Philosophy: Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s Synthesis of Kant and Marx", try to bridge the issue of abstract domination by appealing to the categories of norms- be they positive norms (as in McNulty) or as a constraint upon rational norms (as in Evans). In this presentation we shall build upon one section of our paper "Real Abstraction and the Given" whereby we tried to offer a third possibility in the concept of pattern-governed behavior. First we shall revisit the basic categories proposed by philosophers of the Pittsburgh School for understanding the general problem of rule-following. Next, we shall revisit in more detail the framework offered by Brazilian philosopher José Arthur Giannotti concerning operational schemes as a way into the constitution of abstract diagrams of action by Capital. If the first part of the presentation would enable us to classify and understand different kinds of rule-following; the second would enable us to understand the immanent constitution of real abstractions by Capital. The wager is that the mediation between the two halves will furnish us with a more thorough understanding of the ways the social synthesis is operated in its multi-layered complexity.
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