Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book addresses core questions about the nature and structure of contemporary capitalism and the social dynamics and countervailing forces that shape modern life. From a robust and self-consciously sociological framework, it analyzes and interrogates such issues as the nature of the social, the power of the sacred, the nature of authority, the problem of representation, reification, alienation, utopia, and collective resistance. Historical materialism reveals that the scope of productive functions is broader than the crude realism of economism. Marx's critical theory of the commodity and his analysis of the capitalist regime of accumulation remain as vital as ever and serve as a guiding light for the continued exploration of the philosophical underpinnings of critical inquiry and praxis.
Synopsis
Series Editor Foreword AcknowledgementsThe Social Ontology of Capitalism: An IntroductionDan Krier and Mark P. Worrell Section I: Abstract 1 Social Ontology and Social Critique: A New Paradigm for Critical TheoryMichael J. Thompson
2 Critical Theory in the Twenty-First Century. The Logic of Capital between Classical Social Theory, the Early Frankfurt School Critique of Political Economy, and the Power of Artifice Harry Dahms
3 The Sacred and the Profane in the General Formula for Capital: Re-Mapping the Capitalist Mode of Production for both Skeptics and Bamboozled Realists Mark P. Worrell 4 Social Form and the "Purely Social" Toward better Understanding Value and the Value-FormPatrick Murray and Jeanne Schuler Section II: Concrete 5 The Political Economy of Debt and the Present Moment of World HistoryTony Smith 6 The (In)Visibility of Capital. Reflections on Film, Lukacs, and Contemporary Critical Realism Christian Lotz 7 Demand the Impossible: Greece, the Eurozone, and the Anti-Utopian ComplexDavid Norman Smith 8 The Constellation of Social Ontology: Walter Benjamin, Eduard Fuchs, and the Body of HistoryKevin S. Amidon and Dan Krier
9 The Body Ontology of CapitalismDan Krier and Kevin S. Amidon 10 Critical Theory and the Morality of MiseryTony A. Feldmann
IndexList of Contributors