Imagination as Crisis: Spinoza on the Naturalisation and Denaturalisation of Capitalist Relations

Many current Marxist debates point to a crisis of imagination as a challenge to emancipatory thoughts and actions. The naturalisation of the capitalist mode of production within the production of subjectivity is among the chief reasons behind this state of affairs. This article contributes to the debate by focusing on the notion of imagination, marked by a deep ambivalence capable of both naturalising and denaturalising social relations constitutive of the established order. Such an understanding of imagination is constructed from within the framework of historical materialism, and it draws on Spinoza and Marx, taking advantage of the similarities between the two with respect to the constitution of the subject. From this stems an investigation into the imagination as a material force that partakes both in subjection and liberation. This is further demonstrated in regard to juridical forms of subjectivation and the possibility of subverting these forms through imagination.

Empire, nationalism and christianity

This paper studies in parallel the history of empire and the development of universals. It uses as its preliminary orientation the work of Eric Voegelin who argued that universals develop in history alongside and through universalising empires. We find this basic contention highly credible as it is empires that force us to develop cognitive approaches that encompass both colonised and coloniser in any subsequent social structure. So conceived, the paper then argues that empires are synonymous with human history as such and that even those entities (such a Greek city states) which are eulogised for escaping this logic are on examination no less imperial than the empires they oppose. The paper then argues that the development of universals is not a byproduct of empire but rather that it drives imperial expansion in the first place. It seeks to argue that ideation is the casual factor in human history, social structures and behaviour. It argues contra thinkers like Francis Fukuyama, there is no biological foundation for the qualitative distinctions of civilisation, rather the paper contends that the origin of civilisation lies in human conceptuality not human biology, locality or indeed any other material force impinging on life. So configured, the paper then concludes that the primary political question lies in bringing together the question of the good with empire – a process most advanced in human history by Christianity.

THE EFFECT OF VIRTUAL LABORATORY IMPLEMENTATION ON THE SCIENCE LITERACY ABILITY OF CLASS VIII STUDENTS ON MATERIAL FORCE AND MOVEMENT OF OBJECTS AT MTS NEGERI 1 JEMBER

Students who do not raise questions that are applicable and the ability to identify a problem according to the concept of science, show that the scientific literacy of students is classified as low science in a real context. In general, this study aims to examine the effect of the application of the virtual laboratory on the scientific literacy ability of students on the subject matter of force and motion. This research method uses quantitative research types Quasi Experimental Design. The population in this study were students of class VIII and the sample was selected by purposive sampling. The instrument of scientific literacy is a description test. Prerequisite test results use Kolmogorov Smirnov for normality and use One-Way ANOVA for homogeneity. Then the hypothesis test was performed using the Z test. The results of the study obtained an average value of scientific literacy at a pretest significance value of 0.403> 0.05 so that H0 was accepted and Ha was rejected. While the posttest value has a significance value of 0.001 <0.005 so that H0 is rejected and Ha is accepted. So that it shows a significant influence between the scientific literacy abilities of students in the two classes.

Epilogue

This chapter returns to the various alternative views about human consciousness first mentioned at the start of this book, and assesses how this book’s account compares to, and hopefully builds on, these other viewpoints. The view of human consciousness developed in this book can explain the uniqueness of our species’ conscious awareness, but in an entirely materialistic fashion. This approach views language—the system of abstract symbols linked in a grammatical structure but also one that connects the individual to the world outside via word meaning—and other forms of human culture like music, art, and literature, as a material force that has reshaped human brain functions at every level. This has led to a qualitative shift in such functions, compared to that of every other species, including our closest animal cousins, the great apes. Unlike a purely ‘bottom up’ approach to human brain function, this view sees language, as well as other mediators of human culture, as imposing both structural and dynamic changes in our brains. Structurally, it sees the different brain regions, as well as their interconnections, as altered in humans. The chapter then reflects on what impact, if any, might this approach to understanding human consciousness have on diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.

Philosophy of Education and the Ideological Underpinning of the Curriculum

The seeming corpulent connection between theory and practice informs this inquiry. Whereas there have been claims from several quarters that the decline in the quality of pedagogy lies with poor theory but where there is a sound one, its deleterious practice or application is considered a foremost culprit. Consequent upon this, this research takes a twist on this issue. Through the method of critical analysis and interpretation, the study employs the Marxist theory of education as its theoretical framework. In other words, the paper takes its cue from a Marxist perspective to posit that the society is a battle ground of ideologies. What is perceived as failed theory and/or practice in pedagogy is actually the fulfillment of an ideology of the ruling class who are not only the ruling material force but also the society’s ruling intellectual force. This clearly portends that there is an ideology behind any curriculum and its application. It is always a curriculum put in place by the ruling class. It is calculated to produce minds that would condone and uphold the hegemonic status quo of the ruling intellectual force. It therefore does not matter whether or not society develops. For development is defined by the prevailing ideology. Contrary opinions are repressed and exterminated usually through force or rhetoric. If this is the case, the question of theory and practice in pedagogy does not arise. On the contrary, the main impetus ought to be how to deal with what kind of ideology persists in a society’s educational curriculum. Hence, the current study proposes a re-thinking away from the perceived and seemingly wide abyss between theory and practice. This is because every fact and practice is theory-laden. It is the submission of this paper that the ideological basis of a curriculum demands more attention.

Against National Sovereignty: The Postcolonial New World Order and the Containment of Decolonization

In this paper, I examine the growing reliance on discourses of autochthony in nationalisms throughout the world. Native-ness (or indigeneity) is increasingly being made a key criterion for claiming national sovereignty over territory, as well as the more amorphous – but no less consequential – claim to national membership. By examining the crucial colonial genealogy of autochthonous discursive practices, I argue that claims to autochthony are metaphysical and, as such, deeply depoliticizing of the exclusions they produce. Drawing upon historical studies showing how imperial-states deployed autocthonous discourses to divide those they categorized as Natives and Migrants from one another in an effort to maintain their imperial rule, I show the continuities of such practices in the Postcolonial New World Order of nation-states. Despite their rhetoric, I argue that contemporary, nationalist discourses of autochthonies have not – and cannot – succeed in realizing decolonization, precisely because of their reliance on modes of political, economic, and social exclusion based on the separation of people categorized as either Native-Nationals or as Migrants. The material force of ideas of Native-Nationalism(s), because they are premised on territorial sovereignty and not on the end of practices of expropriation and exploitation across the planet, are part of the worldwide relations of ruling and not threats to it.

Measuring the Wages of Whiteness: A Project for Political Economists

This comment responds to the recently held Global Research in International Political Economy roundtable on race in IPE. In particular, it argues that scholars of political economy could draw fruitfully on the notion of “whiteness as property” from the critical race theory subfield of law in order to trace the workings of whiteness, and race more broadly, as a material force in the economy.

Free to Follow the Feeling

Chapter 3 argues for the materiality of emotional practice, even when emotion is conceived of as immaterial or “immediate” experience. Emotions are especially important mediators of experience for Protestants because they can be conceived of as immaterial. Drawing on ethnographic studies of mainline and Charismatic church communities, this chapter shows that styles of enthusiastic practice (Enlightened, Romantic) make a difference as to what emotions are taken seriously. Emotions count as evidence in different ways for each: “depth” indicates for mainstream, liberal Protestants a real emotion, one that is in the immaterial part of the self, whereas for the Charismatics, “intensity” provides evidence, i.e. the material force of bodily movements and sensations counts as real. Their “belief” is framed as “knowledge”: they are certain. Rather appalled at this claim, the liberal Protestants engage in an emotional practice of doubt, which they view as essential to maintaining personal autonomy, even as they subscribe to conviction. Doubt is, however, also a material practice, dependent on a specific way of doing enthusiasm.