Philosophical and Political Consequences of the Critique of Political Economy : Recognizing Capital

This book extends the approach that Murray and Schuler develop in their companion volume, False Moves in Philosophy and Social Theory: Losing Public Purpose . The chapters form a connected inquiry into consequences of capital, a far-reaching social form, through a critique of political economy and the mindset it shares with much modern philosophy and social theory. The authors call this bifurcating mentality factoring philosophy. Factoring philosophy mistakes the distinguishable for the separable. It splits the subjective and objective, form and content, and it takes the object of social theory to be an impossible economy-in-general, stripped of constitutive social forms. The critique of factoring philosophy structures the collection, which makes a wide-ranging contribution to the research field of the critique of political economy as critical social theory. Ultimately, this book solidifies Murray and Schuler’s impact on the study of political economy, political philosophy, modern philosophy, Hegel, Marx, and critical theory. Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Chapters About the Authors 1 Introduction: Philosophy and Social Theory Beyond the “Bourgeois Horizon” What Are Important Terms in Economics? Bait and Switch Three Questions About Wealth Two Questions About Wealth in Capitalism Marx’s Phenomenological Critique of Economics The “Bourgeois Horizon” Three Types of Concepts Subsumption, Shadow Forms, and Fetishes Subsumption Capital’s Shadow Forms The Commodity, Money, and Capital Fetishes MacIntyre, Postone, Weber, and Marx: Instrumental Action or Capital? Turning the Key of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy Notes Bibliography 2 Recognizing Capital: Some Barriers to Public Discourse About Capital Recognizing Capital: What Makes It Hard What Is Capital? What Makes Capital Hard to Recognize? Recognizing Capital and the “Politics of Identity” Critique of Fraser on Redistribution and Recognition On Capital and the Politics of Identity and Recognition Conceptual and Political Blockages and Openings to Recognizing Capital Getting Beyond the Conversation Stopper: “It’s the Economy, Stupid.” Appendix: Letter from Patrick Murray to Judith Butler, December 16, 1995 Notes Bibliography 3 The Legend of Hegel’s Labor Theory of Reason The Work Theory of Reason A Hegelian Response to the Legend Consequences for Discourse Ethics Notes Bibliography 4 Marx, Subjectivism, and Modern Moral Philosophy The Modern Moral Predicament Subjectivism and Nihilism Commerce and Nihilism Countertendencies to the Nihilism of Commerce Utility Theory and Subjectivism Kant and Subjectivism Capitalism and Subjectivism Beyond Moral Nihilism Notes Bibliography 5 Karl Marx and the Critique of Bourgeois Philosophy The Bourgeois Mindset The Social Basis of Bourgeois Thought Beyond the Bourgeois Horizon Conclusion: Toward Better Concepts Notes Bibliography 6 Reclaiming the Concepts of Value and Capital Introduction Fundamental Concepts and Horizons of Discourse Five Misconceptions of Value and Capital Value Is Not Utility; Utility Is a Bogus Concept Value Is Not Use-Value Value Is Not Exchange-Value or Price Capital Is Not Just Any Resource McDonaldization Represents Real Subsumption Under Capital Not the Spread of Instrumental Reason Notes Bibliography 7 Social Form and the “Purely Social”: On the Kind of Sociality Involved in Value Social Forms and General Traits Skepticism About Purposes and Forms Social Forms: From Commodities to Value The Commodity Spectrum: Simple Commodities, Commodities That Are Commodity Capital, Ex-commodities, Potential Commodities, Quasi-Commodities From Value to Abstract Labor and Time From Abstract Labor and Time to Money and Capital Two Meanings of Marx’s Description of Value as “Purely Social” More to the Story: Some Qualifications to the “Purely Social” Sociality of Values Notes Bibliography 8 The Commodity Spectrum Getting to the Form of Commodities Generalization of the Commodity Form in Capitalist Societies Refining the Concept of Capitalist Commodities From Capitalist Commodity to Commodity Capital The Consequences of Producing Commodities on a Capitalist Basis Doubling and Redoubling: Keep the Double Character of the Commodity in Mind How Value Shapes the Usefulness of the Commodity Ex-commodities: From “Simply Things” to a Store of Value Quasi-Commodities Ideal Subsumption and Shadow Commodities Notes Bibliography 9 A Brilliant Failure: Hegel and Marx Assess the Enlightenment The Enlightenment in Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy Enlightenment in the Phenomenology of Spirit The Enlightenment’s Victory Over Naïve Faith What Lies Beyond Reflection: The Thing-in-Itself Utility—The Truth of Enlightenment From Utility to Terror Marx’s Critique of Enlightenment: Capital, the Truth of Utility Afterword: Horkheimer’s Critique of Instrumental Reason Notes Bibliography 10 From Hegel on Enlightenment Terror to Marx on Capital Contrasting Hegel and Marx on Capitalist Society Hegel’s Account of How the Enlightenment Culminates in the Notion of Utility Utility’s Double Masquerade Comparing Hegel and Marx on the Enlightenment and Utility Notes Bibliography 11 The Poetics of Nihilism: Representing Capital’s Indifference in Dickens’ Hard Times Introduction: Literature and Social Theory Constitutive Forms and Shadow Forms Art and Philosophy: A Hegelian Counterpoint to Dickens Hard Times and the Gradgrind Philosophy The Gradgrind Philosophy and Utilitarianism The Harthouse Philosophy as the Truth of the Gradgrind Philosophy Dickens, Hard Times, and Capitalism Conclusion: Taking on Capital’s Shadow Forms Notes References 12 Rebel Without a Cause: Stanley Kubrick and the Banality of the Good Surfing the Zeitgeist The Skeptical Vision and the Banality of the Good Skepticism and Capitalism The Skeptical Tropes of Stanley Kubrick Skeptical “Solutions” Pleasure Über Alles The Artist’s Response: Create the Meaning That Is Missing from the World The Consolation of False Philosophy Notes Bibliography 13 Disappearing Act: The Trick Philosophy of Woody Allen How the Factoring Philosophy Makes the World Disappear Woody Allen’s Existentialism David Hume as the Consummate Trick Philosopher Skepticism’s Instability Skepticism and Freethinking: Oscillating Between Incompatibles Global Skepticism’s Philosophical and Artistic Dead Ends How to Live If All Values Are Strictly Subjective Reflecting on “Life’s Shortness and Uncertainty” Counterworking “the Artifice of Nature” Problems with Projection Theory—But Not to Worry Notes Bibliography Index