Rough Theory

Theory In The Rough

Monthly Archives: September 2007

I Knew This Would Happen…

1 Comment Posted by on September 30, 2007

Having just cleared out an interesting moderation queue, a small public service announcement to spammers who appear somewhat confused: it’s not that kind of fetish. But thanks for your interest.

Admin

Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1: An Aside on the Fetish

4 Comments Posted by on September 30, 2007

Okay. I want to stop here for a moment, catch my breath, and emphasise a couple of things about how I’m interpreting the argument on the fetish, before moving back into the text in greater detail. Note that this post might not make sense unless you’ve read at least the post immediately prior, on Value [...]

Abstraction, Critical Theory, Empiricism, Fetish, Materialism, Negations, Political Economy, Self-Reflexivity

Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1: Value and Abstract Labour as Real Abstractions

13 Comments Posted by on September 29, 2007

Those who have been following this discussion closely enough to read along in the comments, know that I have been struggling to work out how to write this post. The main thing I’ve been wrestling with is how to write something that captures the concepts I think Marx was trying to express, while also giving [...]

Abstraction, Critical Theory, Empiricism, Fetish, Materialism, Political Economy, Self-Reflexivity

Self-Quoting in Capital

9 Comments Posted by on September 28, 2007

So now I’m curious: in this discussion below, both Nate and The Constructivist have raised the question of why Marx quotes himself in the first sentence of Capital: The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,” its unit being a single commodity. [...]

Political Economy, Reading, Self-Reflexivity

When I Upgrade, I Want to Be…

5 Comments Posted by on September 22, 2007

I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently, mostly on a laptop that I cart around and perch precariously on my knees while I sit in various ergonomically-dubious positions. Today, my son walked up, wanting to sit on my lap. He expressed this by saying: “Could I be a laptop now, please?” ouch, ouch, ouch…

Family, Professional Life

Your Future Is Our Future

4 Comments Posted by on September 21, 2007

I’ve been seeing this Westpac ad recently on billboards along my tram route. I gather the intention is to express that Westpac has made commitments to environmentally and socially responsible lending practices. This isn’t, though, my immediate association on seeing the ad… In many ways, in fact, this might make an excellent model for one [...]

Ecology, Links, Procrastination

Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1: Nature and Society

8 Comments Posted by on September 21, 2007

Just a fragment tonight – very tired… A quick look at the introductory section of the first chapter of Capital, from the online version here. Marx begins this chapter with what looks to be a fairly straightforward definition of the commodity: The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents [...]

Abstraction, Critical Theory, Fetish, Materialism, Political Economy, Self-Reflexivity

Outline of a Practice of Theory

8 Comments Posted by on September 17, 2007

Just a quick pointer to Alexei’s “Philosophy and Social Change” over at Now-Times. In this post, Alexei picks up more systematically on several of the threads from the recent discussions here and at The Kugelmass Episodes (cross-posted to The Valve) on how to conceptualise the relationship of theory and practice. A brief teaser: Such a [...]

Conversations, Critique, Social Movements, Transformation

Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1: Reflections on the “Greatest Difficulty”

7 Comments Posted by on September 15, 2007

In the Preface to the first German edition of Capital, Marx notes: Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences. To understand the first chapter, especially the section that contains the analysis of commodities, will, therefore, present the greatest difficulty. Marx begins Capital with a chapter on commodities. Why this beginning? And what kind of [...]

Critical Theory, Fetish, Materialism, Political Economy, Self-Reflexivity

Gender and the Culture of Academic Philosophy

15 Comments Posted by on September 14, 2007

Rushing, and unfortunately I don’t have time to write on this in detail at the moment, but I wanted to point those who hadn’t yet seen it to Sally Haslanger’s piece “Changing the Ideology and Culture of Philosophy: Not by Reason (Alone)”, which begins: There is a deep well of rage inside of me. Rage [...]

Professional Life

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