Abstract: In this essay, I explore Cassirer’s brief discussion of utopia in An Essay on Man, as likely built upon Kant’s theory of genius as from the Critique of Judgment. This exploration of Cassirer’s theory of utopia lays the groundwork to argue that a utopia is the dynamic product (work) of the “ethical genius,” a work that […]
Preview: /Roger Scruton interviewed by Mikołaj Sławkowski-Rode/ Beauty and power (here I mean primarily political power) have a relationship with a long and turbulent history perhaps first explicitly acknowledged by Plato. Beauty is often employed in the service of power (national anthems, and emblems are perhaps the most obvious example), but sometimes also serves to
Preview: /Review: Edward S. Casey, The World on Edge, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 385 pages./ For the most part, we live our everyday lives surrounded by solid, substantial, reliable things fitting into, and supporting, our practical projects. We live our lives believing in the stable and, more or less, unified nature of our selves and
Preview: /Review: Hili Razinsky, Ambivalence: A Philosophical Exploration, London & New York: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016), 296 pages./ In Ambivalence: A Philosophical Exploration, Hili Razinsky defines a conception of ambivalence in contrast to what she perceives to be its denial or marginalization as a specifically prominent form of mental attitude by predominant philosophical theories.
Preview: A primary mark of classical and neo-classical theories of economy is their methodological abstraction of the fundamental forces of economy – namely, supply and demand – from the cultures in which they are embedded. The “market” of which economists speak, and wherein prices achieve equilibrium, is no marketplace: that is, it exists nowhere and
Abstract: In putting forth a view of economic agents as autonomous individuals driven by self-interest, mainstream economics precludes the possibility of gift. Gift could be found in non-market, “collectivist”, societies, where “informal” norms would include gift-giving. In this context, the paper argues that mainstream views regarding the impossibility of the concept of gift are inaccurate,
Abstract: 150th anniversary of Marx’s Das Kapital calls for yet another contemporary evaluation of Karl Marx’s legacy. The article argues that Marx’s most important and the longest standing contribution into social science is not „historical materialism” nor any particular form of “critical theory” – it is the concept of capital as a specific mode of
Abstract: There have been several criticisms of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) from the political Left. Perhaps the most frequent one has been that OOO’s aspiration to speak of objects apart from all their relations runs afoul of Marx’s critique of “commodity fetishism.” The main purpose of this article is to show that even a cursory reading
Abstract: The discourse about commodification of time indicates that under the current socio-economic regime important values get systematically ignored. This paper reviews literature about the value of time in classical political economy, neoclassical economics, the household production approach, household economics, and activity models. Starting with neoclassical economics, all these approaches are largely in accordance with
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to trace how a perverted understanding of the human – of human nature, growth, and well-being – came to form the foundation for classical liberal economic thought and to identify some of the negative consequences of this development. My suggestion is that, in response to the social upheaval
