scholarly journals Primitive accumulation and Chinese mirrors

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Jack Barbalet
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Capitalist Class ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Other Hand

A consensus holds that the structure of Capital I is problematic. In particular, the section ‘So-called Primitive Accumulation’ discusses the origins of capitalism but appears at the end of the volume rather than at the beginning. Even more anomalous, the forecast of the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist class is in the penultimate chapter. The final chapter, ‘The Modern Theory of Colonization’, is regarded by commentators as enigmatic, if they refer to it at all. This article, on the other hand, shows that Marx considered the structure of Capital over a number of years and that his discussion of Wakefield’s theory of colonization is part of an account of the continuing centrifugal regeneration of capitalist relations beyond the sites of mature capitalism. The article addresses the failure of commentators from Mehring to Harvey to appreciate the logic of Capital’s chapter structure. The contemporary resonance of Marx’s account of capitalist development at the periphery of the global capitalist system is indicated by considering primitive accumulation in two distinct phases of China’s history.

Pens, Politics, and Swords

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Ricketts
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Military Reform ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Army Officers ◽  
The Military ◽  
Institutional Order

The final chapter discusses in parallel the political histories of Spain and Peru in the final years of imperial rule in South America. Peru did not experience a long national struggle and lacked large elites committed to independence. As in the old metropolis, a constant and violent struggle between men of letters and military officers dominated. After decades of military reform and war, army officers with experience in command and government felt entitled to rule. Old subjects and new citizens were also accustomed to seeing them lead. Men of letters, on the other hand, found limited opportunities to exercise their new authority despite their ambitions. Additionally, both in Spain and Peru, liberal men of letters failed to create a new institutional order in which the military would be subjected to civilian rule. It would take decades for both parts of the former Spanish monarchy to accomplish that goal and allow for peace.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Floris Verhaart
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
French School ◽  
The One

The final chapter summarizes the findings of the preceding chapters and offers an epilogue on how the tension between different approaches to classical literature has parallels in the nineteenth century. It is argued that the debates described in the monograph between the ‘Dutch School’ (philologia) focusing on textual problems and the ‘French School’ (philosophia) focusing on moral issues had no clear winners. Rather they led, on the one hand, to a more technical and professional approach to the study of ancient texts and, on the other hand, to the continued popularity of classical ideas and models of moral virtue in the eighteenth century thanks to more accessible works of ‘popular’ scholarship.

scholarly journals Childishness, Primitivism and the Primitive as Child in the Anti-Imperialist Works of Robert Louis Stevenson

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Bogle Petterson
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
The Other ◽  
Robert Louis Stevenson ◽  
Rudyard Kipling ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Adult World

<p>My thesis examines the connection between childishness and primitivism in four key works by Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped, "The Beach of Falesa", The Ebb-Tide and A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. In particular, I discuss Stevenson's depiction of "primitive" peoples - the Scottish Highlanders of Kidnapped and the Pacific Islanders in the other works - as childish or childlike. While this is a trope that was typically used to justify imperial domination by "adult" Europeans (by writers such as H. Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling, for instance), for Stevenson the case is somewhat different because of the extent to which he valorises childishness. The "Introduction" places Stevenson's anti-imperialist deployment of the primitive-as-child trope in the context of romanticism and primitivism more generally, trends which idealised children and primitives in response to the degrading forces of industrial capitalist development in Europe. The first chapter shows how Stevenson's idealised notion of childish Highlanders in Kidnapped is used to valorise them at the expense of the sedentary and conformist "adult" world of the Lowlands. In the second chapter, I show how Stevenson similarly valorises the childish native characters in "The Beach of Falesa" and The Ebb-Tide, while at the same time he dismantles the notion that European colonisers of the Pacific possess any "adult" authority whatsoever by depicting the latter as being in the grip of infantile delusions. In these late fictional works, the idealised childishness of the natives, characterised by growth and vitality, is contrasted with European infantilism, which signifies the cultural regression and insularity that Stevenson saw as closely connected with imperial activity. My final chapter shows how these two opposed notions of childishness-as-growth and childishness-as-decay/insularity inform Stevenson's non-fiction anti-imperialist work, A Footnote to History. My thesis aims to show that Stevenson was not so constrained by imperialist cliches and rhetoric as some critics have argued; rather, I suggest that his sympathy for the victims of colonisation allowed him to dramatically undermine this rhetoric.</p>

The Logics of Worldlessness

2020 ◽  
pp. 245-292
Author(s):  
Roland Végső
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Condition ◽  
The One

The final chapter provides a close reading of Alain Badiou’s The Logics of Worlds. It argues that the theoretical conflict between Being and Event and The Logics of Worlds plays out in the space defined by the tension between the ontological primacy of worldlessness and the phenomenological necessity of worlds. While the ontology of radical multiplicity introduced in Being and Event provides us with one of the most compelling arguments in favour of worldlessness, in the sequel to Being and Event Badiou turns to a novel phenomenology to account for the necessity of worlds. The chapter argues that it is the Heideggerian contradictions expounded upon in Chapter 1 that will help us make sense of a fundamental contradiction in Badiou’s philosophy: a conflict between the ontology of worldlessness and the politics of world-creation. To put it differently, in Badiou’s thought we encounter two forms of worldlessness: on the one hand, Being is worldless (which is a positive enabling condition) and, on the other hand, Capital is worldless (which is a negative historical condition).

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 197-200
Author(s):  
Brian D. Christens
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Sociopolitical Context ◽  
The One

The conclusion of this book addresses the need to navigate a perennial paradox: on the one hand, there is great urgency to address the issues currently facing communities; on the other hand, there is need for diligent (and often painfully slow) pursuit of better frameworks and tools that can help advance praxis and make it more effective. In the current sociopolitical context, however, it does not seem nearly as necessary to stress this need for urgency. The urgency should be readily apparent. The final chapter offers concluding thoughts, especially in light of constantly changing sociopolitical contexts. Crises often present unique opportunities for change, and the process of building power to press for change has many benefits.

Aristotle's Teleology and Uexküll's Theory of Living Nature

1948 ◽  
Vol 42 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Weiss
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Full Detail ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
Easy Solution

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to a similarity between an ancient and a modern theory of living nature. There is no need to present the Aristotelian doctrine in full detail. I must rather apologize for repeating much that is well known. My endeavour is to offer it for comparison, and, incidentally, to clear it from misrepresentation. Uexküll's theory, on the other hand, is little known, and what is given here is an insufficient outline of it. I do not maintain that either doctrine is right. I am fully aware that the problem of the essence of living nature by no means admits of an éasy solution. In offering for consideration the comparison contained in this paper I would go no farther than owning my belief that the two authors here discussed, both thinkers who combine an intensely philosophical outlook with a wide biological experience, are worth the attention not only of the historian of science and philosophy, but also of the student of philosophical biology.

scholarly journals Max Weber und der „konfuzianische Kapitalismus“

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (119) ◽  
pp. 281-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Pohlmann
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Other ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Empirical Base ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

In explanations of the path of capitalist development in East Asia, the idea of „confucian capitalism” became well accepted in the past two decades. Turning on the one hand Weber upside down (by changing the direction of his explanation) , most authors did rely on the other hand on his theoretical approach. But, by comparing Webers approach with the mode of explanation applied in recent studies, the article does reveal the theoretical flaws as well as the weak empirical base of the intended cultural explanations. „Confucian capitalism” seems not only to be a rather misleading catchphrase, but as such also a barreer to sound cultural explanations of capitalist development.

scholarly journals Childishness, Primitivism and the Primitive as Child in the Anti-Imperialist Works of Robert Louis Stevenson

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Bogle Petterson
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
The Other ◽  
Robert Louis Stevenson ◽  
Rudyard Kipling ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Adult World

<p>My thesis examines the connection between childishness and primitivism in four key works by Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped, "The Beach of Falesa", The Ebb-Tide and A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. In particular, I discuss Stevenson's depiction of "primitive" peoples - the Scottish Highlanders of Kidnapped and the Pacific Islanders in the other works - as childish or childlike. While this is a trope that was typically used to justify imperial domination by "adult" Europeans (by writers such as H. Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling, for instance), for Stevenson the case is somewhat different because of the extent to which he valorises childishness. The "Introduction" places Stevenson's anti-imperialist deployment of the primitive-as-child trope in the context of romanticism and primitivism more generally, trends which idealised children and primitives in response to the degrading forces of industrial capitalist development in Europe. The first chapter shows how Stevenson's idealised notion of childish Highlanders in Kidnapped is used to valorise them at the expense of the sedentary and conformist "adult" world of the Lowlands. In the second chapter, I show how Stevenson similarly valorises the childish native characters in "The Beach of Falesa" and The Ebb-Tide, while at the same time he dismantles the notion that European colonisers of the Pacific possess any "adult" authority whatsoever by depicting the latter as being in the grip of infantile delusions. In these late fictional works, the idealised childishness of the natives, characterised by growth and vitality, is contrasted with European infantilism, which signifies the cultural regression and insularity that Stevenson saw as closely connected with imperial activity. My final chapter shows how these two opposed notions of childishness-as-growth and childishness-as-decay/insularity inform Stevenson's non-fiction anti-imperialist work, A Footnote to History. My thesis aims to show that Stevenson was not so constrained by imperialist cliches and rhetoric as some critics have argued; rather, I suggest that his sympathy for the victims of colonisation allowed him to dramatically undermine this rhetoric.</p>

scholarly journals Experiments and observations on electric conduction

1833 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 350-351
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Electric Conduction ◽  
Hollow Cone ◽  
General Law ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Extreme Degree ◽  
A Charge ◽  
To Receive

According to the modern theory of electricity, metallic bodies, far from attracting the electric fluid, as is commonly believed, are of all bodies those which have the least attraction for that fluid, and being the best conductors for it, are entirely passive during its transit through them. In confirmation of these views, the author describes experiments in which the electric spark was found to have penetrated through the side of a glass globe blown to an extreme degree of thinness. An electric jar, from which the air had been partially exhausted, could not be made to receive as high a charge as when the contained air was of the usual density, and when entirely exhausted could not be charged in any sensible degree; when filled with condensed air on the other hand, it retained a higher charge than before. The heated and consequently rarefied air surrounding a red-hot iron rod is found to conduct electricity with great facility. The same property is observed in the flame from a blowpipe, which may be regarded as a hollow cone containing highly rarefied air; as also, in a larger scale, in that of a volcano. Sir H. Davy had concluded from his experiments on voltaic electricity, that the conducting powers of metals are diminished by heat; but Mr. Ritchie infers from several experiments which bear more directly upon the question, that the metals afford no exception to the general law, that in all bodies heat increases the conducting powers; and explains the apparent anomaly in Sir H. Davy’s experiments, by the dissipation of the electricity by the rarefied air surrounding the heated metals, which were used as conductors. He concludes his paper by describing an experiment which appears to establish, in respect to this law, a striking analogy between the electric and magnetic influences.

Introduction

Anxiety ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Bettina Bergo
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
The Other ◽  
Time Consciousness ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand

Starting from a reflection from Auden’s The Age of Anxiety, our Introduction extends his lesson about “pain taught and soon forgotten” to confront a recent ethics characterized by “irony and anxiety.” If anxiety in philosopher Jan Philipp Reemtsma’s ethical politics is essential for modern societies intent on avoiding the crimes of the past, then what really do we know about anxiety and its history? In response, the Introduction presents a historical narrative, starting from Kantian transcendentalism and moving through Hegel and Schelling’s responses to the same—essentially restoring affects and passions to the idealist project. It then turns to Kierkegaard’s existential reappropriation of anxiety and “actuality.” Thereafter, the narrative flows into several branches with Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and, on the other hand, a natural science branch, focusing first on Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions (1872). Given the influence of natural science, the Introduction examines Freud’s own evolution, from neurology to psychology. It analyzes the three-part significance of anxiety in his work. A final narrative stream returns to formalism with Husserl’s eidetic project. It examines his treatment of affects in the “genetic,” phase of his phenomenology, when he discussed preconscious affective forces (1918) and their role in memory and association. Heidegger’s early deformalization of Husserl’s time-consciousness resulted in a dismantling of the metaphysical ego and the reconsideration of Angst as opening access to what he called Being. The final chapter explores anxiety as arising from our intersubjective, embodied origins. Kant’s practical reason returns in Levinas’ unique phenomenology of the unthematizable Other and of my sensuous openness to that Other.

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