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Organisedon the Orientations of Theory and the Theorisations of Organisation in the Philosophy of Karl Marx

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Organisedon the Orientations of Theory and the Theorisations of Organisation in the Philosophy of Karl Marx atoms organisedon the orientations of theory and the theorisations of organisation in the philosophy of Karl Marx Bue Rübner Hansen Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen Mary University, London December 2013 1 Appendix A: Required statement of originality for inclusion in research degree theses I, Bue Rübner Hansen, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Date: 18.12.2013 2 Abstract Atoms Organised - On the Orientations of Theory, and the Theorisations of Organisation in the philosophy of Karl Marx The contemporary crisis has lead to a renewed interest in Marx's critique of political economy. But today it is hard to read Marx as the prophet of a new and better world, his writings on capitalism's self-destructive tendencies seem without hope: where Marx believed that capitalist organisation would concentrate, homogenise and organise labour and orientate it toward socialism, in today's globalised capitalism the tendency is the opposite, towards precariousness, disorganisation and competition. This raises the problematic of this thesis, that of the relation between orientation and organisation. Where capitalist organisation atomises and differentiates, the starting point for orientation cannot be capitalist organisation. The question emerges: is there a place and orientation of self-organisation in Marx – and what is its possible relation to the critique of the dynamics of capital? To answer this question, I will not focus on Marx's explicit theory of workers' organisation or the party, which is in crisis, but on his theorisation of the epochal problem of organisation under capitalism. Through a reading of some of Marx's central writings, which is sensitive to their historical context, the thesis asks: what is the orientating role of the concepts of organisation and disorganisation in Marx's theory of capital and of revolutionary, history-making practice? From Kant we learn to think the mutual implication of theory and practice through the concept of orientation. Furthermore, we show that Marx's concept of organisation was inspired by Hegel's Philosophy of Nature, which starts from the problem of atomised individuals whose reproduction is contingent. Thus, organisation, when appropriately historicised in terms of this condition of contingency, does not start from the relation between capital and labour, but from the problem of reproduction. In conclusion we arrive at a concept of struggle that starts from resistances and struggles for reproduction, and which poses the question of their combination, self-organisation, and generalisation. 3 Index Preface...............................................................................................................................8 Introduction, by way of some conclusions...................................................................11 1. A Crisis of Capital, a Crisis of Historical Imagination...........................................11 2. The Ends of Progressivism and the Great Symmetry.............................................12 3. Hope and Objectivity Divided................................................................................15 4. Questions of Contingency and Organisation..........................................................19 5. The Aim of this Thesis............................................................................................21 6. The Structure of this Thesis....................................................................................24 7. Conclusions.............................................................................................................26 Part I: The Orientation of Theory Chapter 1: The Freedom of the Swerve, the Actuality of Idealisation......................29 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................29 2. An Idealism of Freedom? .......................................................................................32 3. What is the Difference of the Epicurean Event?.....................................................33 4. The Ethics of the Atom............................................................................................38 5. The Metaphysics of Atomism.................................................................................40 6. From the Atom to Organisation...............................................................................42 7. Turning Against the World: Practical Energy..........................................................46 8. The Missing Political Philosophy of the Dissertation.............................................51 9. Conclusion...............................................................................................................55 Chapter 2: Orientation in Actuality and the Orientation of Actualisation...............57 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................57 2. Orientation and Actuality........................................................................................58 3. The Freedom of the Press........................................................................................61 4. Actualisation and the Rationality of the Social Organism......................................63 5. The Orientation of the Press....................................................................................66 6. The Production of a New Possibility.......................................................................70 7. The Navigator on the Ship of Fools........................................................................72 8. The Orientation of the Political Revolution............................................................75 9. Smoking, Eating and Drinking................................................................................82 10. Conclusion.............................................................................................................86 Chapter 3: The Rabble and the Proletariat.................................................................88 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................88 2. Antagonism of the Whole and Partisan Knowledge...............................................90 3. The Problem of the Rabble, and the Solutions of the State....................................93 4. The Margins of Civil Society and the Estovers of the Rhine Valley......................98 5. The Universal Negativity of Proletarian Need........................................................99 6. The Organised Proletariat.....................................................................................105 7. History, Colonialism and Invisibility....................................................................108 8. Conclusion............................................................................................................114 End of Part I 4 Chapter 4. The Problem of History............................................................................118 1. Introduction...........................................................................................................118 2. Species History and Modes of Production............................................................119 3. The Natural History of Modes of Production.......................................................122 4. Organism: Necessity of Contingency and Crisis..................................................128 5. From Dialectical Reason to Systematic Dialectics...............................................132 6. Retrospective History and Abstraction.................................................................136 7. Transitions Between Modes of Production...........................................................140 8. Break or Accelerate! The Limits to Critique Without Organisation.....................143 9. Conclusion............................................................................................................147 Part II: The Theorisation of Organisation Chapter 5. The Pre-History and Genealogy of Capital ...........................................150 1. Introduction: The Problem of the History and Historicity of Capital...................150 2. The Philosophy of Capital or the History of Capital?...........................................152 3. Historical Emergence and the Question of Generalisation...................................156 4. A Historical Rupture: Expropriation and Looting.................................................162
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