The Paradox of Intellectual Property in Capitalism

The Paradox of Intellectual Property in Capitalism is an innovative book that comprehensively discusses and analyses intellectual property under capitalistic social conditions and relations. It not only addresses some historical developments of intellectual property but also brings to the fore the very notion of what knowledge is, knowledge creation, and knowledge production and appropriation within a Marxist framework. Nonetheless, the adopted approach pays heed to multiple fields of knowledge, providing rich discussions that facilitate the understanding of actual social totality in which capitalism, knowledge production and appropriation, and the struggles of appropriation mutually reinforce each other, although not devoid of antagonisms and contradictions. In light of contemporary capitalism, the transformations that social property relations are undergoing must be scrutinised – such as those brought about by the development of digitalisation and the convergence between big pharma and tech giants. What are the conditions of intellectual property creation today? What theoretical assumptions does it make? Under what social relations is intellectual property produced? Throughout, the emphasis is not on individual cases or symptoms but on the overarching logic: the logic of capitalism as revealed in intellectual property. Preface References Contents Acronyms 1: Introduction: Breaking Free from Private Control over Knowledge 1.1 Introduction: Breaking Free from Private Control over Knowledge References 2: History and Dialectics of Intellectual Property 2.1 Prolegomena: A Brief History of Intellectual Property 2.1.1 Italy and England 2.1.2 The Bayh-Dole Act and TRIPS 2.1.3 Intellectual Property Mainstream Taxonomy 2.2 Intellectual Property as Premise and Results 2.2.1 Property 2.2.2 Shaping Behaviour: The Abstract Right 2.2.3 “Positive” Alienation and the Negative Right 2.2.4 Social Surplus-Value or Individual Subjective Utility? 2.2.5 (Exchange-)Value Is Exploitation 2.2.6 Productive and Unproductive Labour 2.2.7 Debunking the Primitive Accumulation Myth 2.2.8 Enclosing the Mind 2.2.9 The First Paradox of Intellectual Property in Capitalism 2.2.10 Digital Gift Economy 2.2.11 Result and Premise: Arbitrary Teleological Condition 2.2.12 Result and Premise: Causal Historical Condition 2.2.13 An Ontological Condition of Capital 2.2.14 Capitalist Private Property and Economic Coercion 2.2.15 Marx’s Formal Subsumption 2.2.16 Marx’s Real Subsumption References 3: Ontology and De-ontologised Rationalisation of Intellectual Property 3.1 Prolegomena: Rationalisation of Intellectual Property 3.1.1 Contemporary Theory 3.1.2 Rational Choice Fetishism 3.1.3 Knowledge and the Epistemic 3.1.4 Justifying Intellectual Property(private) 3.2 The Ontological Dimension 3.2.1 On the Ontology of Human Thinking 3.2.2 Consciousness, Context, and Experience of Action 3.2.3 Social Teleology: Self-Reflection, Social Recursion, and Normative Self-Appraisal 3.2.4 Ontogenesis: Genetics and Cultural Development 3.2.5 Human Sensual Activity and a Teleological New Accentuation 3.2.6 The Impossible-Possible 3.2.7 Cooperation and Sociability: An Evolutionary Summit 3.2.8 Communication, Conceptualisation, Universalisation, and Empathy 3.2.9 The Private Language Absurd 3.2.10 The Genesis of Capitalism 3.2.11 The True Capitalist Revolution 3.2.12 On the Ontology of the Human-Being and the Totality of Property 3.2.13 Labour and Teleology 3.2.14 Absolute Causality, Absolute Teleology, and “Teleologised” Causality 3.2.15 Ought-Value Totality, Behaviour, and Time 3.2.16 Popular Science and Scientific Failures as Preconditions of Theoretical Science: or the Pure Science Hypostasis 3.2.17 Destruction (and Subsumption) of the Worker’s Knowledge 3.2.18 Destruction of Knowledge Value and the Separation of Property and Intellectual Property 3.2.19 Marxian Totality of Property and Intellectual Property 3.2.20 The Capitalist State and the So-Called Private Enterprise 3.2.21 The Second Paradox of Intellectual Property in Capitalism References 4: Knowledge Control and the Spectacle 4.1 Prolegomena: The Dangers of Intellectual Property 4.1.1 Monopoly 4.1.2 Privatisation of Life and Bio-colonialism 4.1.3 Reshaping the Epistemic 4.2 Intellectual Control and the Spectacle of Surveillance 4.2.1 Fictitious Commodity and Fictitious Capital 4.2.2 Intellectual Property as an Economic Weapon 4.2.3 The Metaphysical Universalisation of Fictitious Commodity 4.2.4 Feudalism-Capitalism-Feudalism: Historical Boomerang 4.2.5 De-ontologising Political Economy(’s Critique) 4.2.6 Être, Avoir, Paraître 4.2.7 Propaganda and the Necessary Manipulation of the Masses 4.2.8 Public Relations and Behavioural Control: Engineering of Consent 4.2.9 Consent Without Consent 4.2.10 Audience Commodity 4.2.11 Prosumer: Or Full-Spectrum Spectacle 4.2.12 Infinite Rate of Exploitation 4.2.13 Labourer’s Asceticism 4.2.14 Digital Fissures in Ruling-Class Ideologies 4.2.15 Digital Data Appropriation 4.2.16 Control in the Clouds, Digital Surveillance, and the Capitalist Imperialism 4.2.17 The Black Box Industry References 5: Conclusion: Social Disintegration and the Privatisation of Knowledge References Index