Rough Theory

Theory In The Rough

Monthly Archives: May 2008

Update

2 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 31, 2008

Just a quick apology that I have left comments and emails hanging for some time now – my net access has been much more limited than I had expected, and unfortunately I am online only very briefly now. I will catch up – hopefully next week. In the interim, thanks to everyone for their comments [...]

Events

Simulcasting

5 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 21, 2008

Some time around now, something resembling the talk below the fold is being presented here.

Abstraction, Capital v.1, Critical Theory, Drafts, Fetish, Marxes, Metatheory, Philosophy of History, Political Economy, Reification, Transformation

Behind the Mountains

4 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 19, 2008

They say behind the mountains are more mountains. Now I know it’s true. I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don’t matter to anyone but themselves. ~ Edwidge Danticat (1996) “Children of the Sea” Krik? Krak! Off to Rome, and then to London. Back [...]

Events

MIA on DVD

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on May 18, 2008

Somehow I managed to avoid noticing that Marxists.org offers DVDs of their collection. I wish I had seen this earlier: I would have ordered it to take with me overseas…

Miscellaneous

The Practice of Theory

11 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 16, 2008

Where do memes come from? Am I allowed to make one? Tom Bunyard from Monagyric has asked me a question down in the comments that I thought might be worth transposing up here, and passing around. Tom writes: John’s organised a kind of series of self-critique things for the Goldsmiths Centre for Cultural Studies, and [...]

Conversations, Critical Theory, Transformation

Times Like Bats

6 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 15, 2008

Vilfredo Pareto famously commented: “Marx’s words are like bats. One can see in them both birds and mice”. As I work on expressing how I understand Marx’s standpoint of critique in Capital, I keep thinking about this phrase. If readers will bear with me as I toss out some rather disorganised thoughts around this theme, [...]

Contradiction, Critical Theory, Metatheory, Political Economy, Self-Reflexivity

Meme: Passion Quilt

6 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 10, 2008

Lumpenprof has tagged me with a meme with the following conditions: Post a picture or make/take/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about. Give your picture a short title. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt.” Link back to this blog entry. Include links to 5 (or more) [...]

Links, Philosophy of History, Teaching

Value as What Will Have Been

10 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 8, 2008

Ktismatics has an interesting post and discussion up on different conceptions of value and the fetish, with reference to The Wire. A taste, from the comments: I’ve been reading some of N. Pepperell’s posts about Marx on Rough Theory, and in so doing I realize that I, like Stringer, have a hard time thinking of [...]

Abstraction, Conversations, Empiricism, Fetish, Links, Philosophy of History, Political Economy

The Incarnation of Value

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on May 5, 2008

No time for posting anything substantive tonight (or, most likely, for the next several days). I just wanted to archive for future reference a quotation from Marx that I’ve always liked – from a discussion of the general equivalent, from the first edition of Capital, volume 1. Marx is struggling here, as he is in [...]

Abstraction, Political Economy

The Quantitative Indeterminacy of Value

5 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on May 4, 2008

Completely exhausted at the moment – just tossing some quick and probably very ill-thought notes onto the blog for future development. I keep meaning to say something about the curious way that Marx often uses simple mathematical relations to talk about value in the first volume of Capital. What interests me specifically is the way [...]

Abstraction, Empiricism, Fetish, Political Economy, Reification

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