Thought-Factory.net Philosophical Conversations Public Opinion philosophy.com Junk for code
hegel
"When philosophy paints its grey in grey then has a shape of life grown old. By philosophy's grey in grey it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk." -- G.W.F. Hegel, 'Preface', Philosophy of Right.
RECENT ENTRIES
SEARCH
ARCHIVES
Library
Links - weblogs
Links - Political Rationalities
Links - Resources: Philosophy
Public Discussion
Resources
Cafe Philosophy
Philosophy Centres
Links - Resources: Other
Links - Web Connections
Other
www.thought-factory.net
'Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainity and agitation distinquish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones ... All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.' Marx

thinking about capitalism « Previous | |Next »
December 26, 2007

At the end of his The Mind and the Market: Capitalism and Modern European Thought Jerry Z. Muller writes of the writes of the various “vital tensions” that shape present-day intellectual politics.

One might say that in the capitalist era, the older tension between this world and the next has been replaced (or, for some, overlaid) with a new set of inner-worldly tensions. The tension between choices and purpose, between cultivating individuality while preserving the sense of attachment that gives life meaning, between independence and solidarity, between collective particularity and cosmopolitan interests, between productivity and equality — these are the characteristic tensions of the capitalist epoch, tensions with which we will continue to live.

As seen from the perspective of market liberalism that makes the market the centre of society. The Enlightenment dubbed it "commercial society" and we, after Marx, call it capitalism. Muller shows that European intellectuals-----Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek. plus Voltaire, Hegel, Justus Möser, Edmund Burke, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Werner Sombart, Georg Lukás, Hans Freyer, and Herbert Marcuse----grappling with the meaning of capitalism shaped their ideas on politics, philosophy, literature, culture, and society.

From Muller's long view the current antiglobalization movement's concerns need to be understood and addressed not as the consequences of recent policies or conditions but rather as inherent in the dynamics of capitalism itself.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 8:00 PM |