Franz Borkenau, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and Kōstas Axelos
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Alienation Stories: Franz Borkenau, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and Kōstas Axelos by Graham Scott Mackenzie B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2007 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Communication Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology © Graham Scott Mackenzie 2012 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2012 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for “Fair Dealing.” Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. Approval Name: Graham Scott Mackenzie Degree: Master of Arts (Communication) Title of Thesis: Alienation Stories: Franz Borkenau, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and Kōstas Axelos Examining Committee: Chair: Martin Laba, Associate Professor Richard Gruneau Senior Supervisor Professor Stuart Poyntz Supervisor Assistant Professor Shane Gunster Internal Examiner Associate Professor School of Communication Date Defended/Approved: September 10, 2012 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract Alienation Stories explores a Marxist theory of alienation through selected works from three lesser known 20th Century theorists: Franz Borkenau, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and Kōstas Axelos. If we read Marx’s theory of Alienation, roughly, as having three parts: 1) objectification of the subject, 2) development of the subject once objectified, and 3) the return of the objectified subject to a ‘higher level’ of subjectivity, then my readings of Borkenau, Sohn-Rethel, and Axelos each correspond to an aspect of the theory of alienation. Franz Borkenau, read together with Walter Benjamin, corresponds to the first stage of alienation. Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s discussion of the social role of the ‘exchange relation’ corresponds to the second stage of the theory of alienation. Finally, Kōstas Axelos’ emphasis on technology as the motor of history is one attempt to supplement the theory of alienation with phenomenology. My reading of Axelos corresponds to the third stage of alienation theory. Keywords: Alienation; Marxism; Phenomenology; History of European Language; Division of Labour; Technology iv Dedication For my mother, who didn’t think I could do anything with a philosophy degree, and who helped me anyway. v Acknowledgements This work owes its existence, first and foremost, to Professors Rick Gruneau and Stuart Poyntz, without whom I would likely never have had the opportunity to study at SFU’s School of Communication. Their support for my project and for my academic and professional development has been unwavering. Additionally, I would like to thank Professor Ian Angus, who pushed me in intellectual directions I might otherwise not have gone. Moreover, Professor Angus’ willingness to put up with me as something of a slow learner has been invaluable in helping me to learn perseverance in the face of difficult work. I also wish to acknowledge the profound and formative intellectual influences of both Professor Angus and Professor Jerry Zaslove. I would like, furthermore, to express my sincerest gratitude to Simon Fraser University and the School of Communication for their generous funding support and for encouraging a collegial and supportive environment in which to pursue my studies. Specifically, I would like to thank the staff at the School of Communication for all of their hard work, assistance, and guidance with the tasks of navigating the intricacies of day to day life as a graduate student. I also wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous support. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their willingness to put up with my lengthy absences, as I locked myself in my office amongst a wreck of books and paper. Most important in this regard, I want to express my love and gratitude for my partner, Shannon, who from time to time ventured into the wreckage of my office during intense periods of labour and offered her company and support. A kind of love among the ruins, so to speak, ensured that this project found its way to completion. vi Table of Contents Approval.............................................................................................................................ii Partial Copyright Licence ..................................................................................................iii Abstract.............................................................................................................................iv Dedication ......................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................vi Table of Contents.............................................................................................................vii 1. Introduction: Plot and Setting............................................................................... 1 1.1. Action and Characters ............................................................................................. 9 1.1.1. Characters.................................................................................................. 11 2. The Story and Language of Individuality: From Walter Benjamin to Franz Borkenau.................................................................................................... 17 2.1. Borkenau vs. Instrumentality.................................................................................. 20 2.2. Information and Storytelling ................................................................................... 24 2.3. The Myth of the Individual...................................................................................... 31 2.4. Reproduction and Play as Technology .................................................................. 37 3. The Story of the Emergence of Intellect ............................................................ 43 3.1. Sequence vs. Constellation ................................................................................... 46 3.2. Abstract Time and Metaphor.................................................................................. 49 3.3. Abstract Reality...................................................................................................... 52 3.4. Abstraction and Alienation ..................................................................................... 56 4. The Story of Techno-Science and the Return to Self: Technology as the ground of Alienation and Transcendence................................................... 61 4.1. The Essence of Techno-Science and the Marx-Heidegger connection................. 67 4.2. Kōstas Axelos’ Heideggerian Marxism .................................................................. 74 4.3. Axelos’ Aporia ........................................................................................................ 79 5. Conclusion............................................................................................................ 84 References..................................................................................................................... 93 vii 1. Introduction: Plot and Setting Despite the fact that ‘alienation’ is of central theoretical importance in Karl Marx’s work, the concept does not occupy an analytically central position in the body of writing published during his lifetime. Indeed, “‘Alienation’ or ‘estrangement’ [Entfremdung, Entäußerung, Veräußerung] was not a featured concept in Marxism, or in scholarship on Marx, before 1932,”1 when key texts from Marx’s youth became available in the West. This is not to say that the concept was Marx’s invention. Prior to the 1932 publication of Marx’s early philosophical writings the term alienation was in use, but its meaning had “changed several times over the centuries. In theological discourse it referred to the distance between man and God; in social contract theories, to loss of the individual’s original liberty; and in English political economy, to the transfer of property ownership.”2 It was in the work of G.W.F. Hegel that the concept of alienation attained its current philosophic status as a properly epistemological concept3 and, thus took the form that would enable it to play a structuring role in Marx’s thought and analysis. At the same time, the concept of alienation would become the source of what, for some, would come to be seen as a significant weakness in Marxist theory. 1 Terrell Carver, “Marx’s Conception of Alienation in the Grundrisse,” in Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy 150 Years Later, ed. Marcello Musto (New York: Routledge, 2008), 48. 2 Marcello Musto, “Revisiting Marx’s Concept of Alienation,” Socialism and Democracy 24, no. 3 (2010): 79; For a much more detailed discussion of Musto’s historical timeline see part 1 of István Mészáros, Marx’s Theory of Alienation (New York: Harper & Row, 1972). 3 There is considerable debate amongst philosophers about the exact definition of ‘concept’. Plato’s theory of forms occupies an early position in the debate amongst philosophers of the Western tradition. John Locke, J.S. Mill, Immanuel Kant, and Hegel are some of the modern figures who articulate positions on the definition of ‘concepts’. In any case, my point here