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Download (12Mb) University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/4333 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Axiomatics: The Apparatus of Capitalism Deepak Narang Sawhney Thesis submitted for the Degree of Ph. D. University of Warwick Department of Philosophy May 1996 Contents Acknowledgements Declaration Summary Key to Abbreviations and Thesis Outline i Introduction 1 I Consuming the Future 13 H Body without Organs 50 III The Stratification of the World-Economy 79 IV Geopolitics: Antisysternic Movements of Resistance 116 V Palimpsest: Toward a Minor Literature in Monstrosity 152 Concluding Remarks: 174 'Class Consciousness'and 'The American Rhizome' Tables 192 Bibliography 195 Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledgeDr. Nick Land for his invaluable support throughout this project, and to my family for their love and patience. Declaration The following is a list of chaptersfrom Axiomatics: The Apparatus of Capitalism that are published in abridged form: Chapter HI: 'The Stratification of the World-Economy', in Must Me Burn Sade?,Deepak N Sawhney (ed) (NJ: Humanities Press, 1997) Chapter IV: 'Geopolitics: Antisystemic Movements of Resistance', in Gilles Deleuze and Minoritarian Becomings, Dorothea Olkowski (ed) (forthcoming, 1997) Chapter V: 'Palimpsest: Toward a Minor Literature in Monstrosity', The Difference of Deleuze, Keith-Ansell Pearson (ed) (London: Routledge, 1997) Certain sections of the thesis have been presentedat conferences,most notably: 'Biocapital', presentedat Culture and Identity: City, Nation, World Second Themy, Culture and Society Conference,Berlin, 10-14 August 1995 'Geopolitics: Antisystemic Movements of Resistance', presentedat the 19th annual meeting for The International Association for Philosophy and Literature: Virtual Incorporations, Textual Spaces Villanova University, Pennsylvania,USA May 10-13 1995 'Capitalism, Schizophrenia, and Geopolitics', presentedat Difference Engine workshop, University of Warwick, March 16 1995 'CyberpocalypseNow', presentedat The Inhuman conference,University of Central Lancashire, June 25 1994 Summary The thesis critically appropriatesthe collaborative philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Rlix Guattari to argue that the general tendency of capitalism is towards the disintegration of high-level control structures (for instance, the nation-state). This disintegration does not entail a movementtowards total chaos or anarchy.I argue that capital generatesits own guidance mechanisms,but ones that act at a low-level, and respond flexibly to changing conditions (an instance of micro-politics). One of the difficulties of this project stemsfrom the fact that the canon of philosophical discourse itself operatesas a high-level control structure. In Marx, the development of capital is controlled by a secularizedHegelian dialectic that determinesthe outcome of capital in socialism. For'Freud, th& low level organization of the unconscious is subjected to high-level control through the universality of the Oedipus complex. By addressingthe need for new philosophical instrumentsto understandcapitalism, the thesis produces critiques of Marx and Freud, and advancesa philosophy of economics by examining the function of axiomatics. Moreover, in critiquing presupposed structures (for example, the unconscious as a theatre of representation),the thesis argues for an immanent system (mulliplicity) of interaction within capitalism. The researchundertaken to complete the thesis has consisted of contemporary experiments in complexity theory, and current socio/economic analyses of labour markets. Of particular interest has been the current de- industrialization that has taken place in the west coast of the United States.With the influx of a periphery into the core area of Los Angeles, the current role of urban politics and minor literatures (most notably Shakur's autobiography) unleash desire into the circuit of the city. I conclude with a re-examination of micro political/economic movementsthat have manifested themselvesinto the economy of Los Angeles. By decoding locally impoverished economic and cultural sectors, emergentproperties have sprouted by realigning subversive activity onto the apex of capital (an immanenceto capitalist processes). Key to Abbreviations and Thesis Outline i Key to Abbreviations The following is a key, unless otherwise indicated in the body of the text, to the reference material used in the thesis. In order to assure consistency of the material cited in the thesis, I have kept to the original spelling that appearsin the texts. For a complete reference guide please refer to the bibliography. Axiomatics, Robert Blanch6 ACCM Allitudes, Chaos and the Connectionist Mind, Richard Eiser A0--- Copitalism Schizophrenia, 1, Anti-0edipus, Gilles Deleuze & ..... and. -vol. - Mix Guattari ATP Capitalism and Schizophrenia, vol. 2, A Thousand Plateaus, Gilles Deleuze & Mix Guattari Bergsonism, Gilles Deleuze Complexity. The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, Mitchell Waldrop 'CAL' 'California Rages Against the Dying of the Light', Richard Walker 6C"9 'Capitalism: A Very Special Delirium', Gilles Deleuze cc Civilization and Capitalism 15th - 18th Century The Wheels of Commerce,vol. 2, Femand Braudel ccc Civilization and Capitalism 151h- 18th Centuty.- YhePerspective of the Morld, vol. 3, Femand Braudel cl Capital, vol. 1, Karl Marx CHI Capital, vol. 111,Karl Marx OF Commerce InfernationaL La Fin des Avantages Acquise, Gerard Lafay & Colette Herzog CLU CommunistsLike Us, Mix Guattari & Antonio Negri CQ City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Mike Davis Axiomatics: The Apparatus of Capitalism ii 'CRC' 'The Chinese Road to Capitalism' Richard Smith Icycl Tyberwar is Coming! ' John Arquilla & David Ronfeldt DIA Dialogues, Gilles Deleuze & Claire Pamet DOE The Death of Economics, Paul Onnerod DR Difference and Repetition, Gilles Deleuze DRC Di-eaming Rational City. The Myth Amefican City-Planningi the -of Christian Boyer Ethics,.Baruch Spinoza EBRCR Economics,Bounded Rationality and the Cognitive Revolution, Simon Herbert 'EU 'Energumen Capitalism', Jean-FrangoisLyotard EP Expressionismin Philosophy Spinoza, Gilles Deleuze ES Empiricism and Subjectivity.- An Essay on Hume's Theoty of Human Mature, Gilles Deleuze 'EYW' 'Everywhere You Want to Be: Introduction to Fear', Brian Massumi Foucault, Gilles Deleuze FLE Fh-sl and Last Emperors, Kenneth Dean & Brian Massumi Gnindi-isse,Karl Marx 'GEAPI 'The Global Economy as an Adaptive Process', John Holland GG Geopolitics and Geoculture: &says on the Changing Morld-System, Immanuel Wallerstein GM On The Genealogy of Moi als and Ecco,Homo, Friedrich Nietzsche 'IE[NM' 'Homes: Meshwork or Hierarchy?', Manuel Delanda Key to Abbreviations and Thesis Outline iii 'IENI' 'The Informational Economy and the New Internal Division of Labor', Manual Castells 61V 'Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation Between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault Kajka: Toward a Alfinor Literature, Gilles Deleuze & Mix Guattari KMSW Karl Marx: Selected Mritings, edited by David McLellan L. Libido: The Erench Existential Theories, AlPhonso Lingis _. LC Late Capitalism, Ernest Mandel LE Libidinal Economy, Jean-FrangoisLyotard LS Logic of Sense, Gilles Deleuze LTC The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times, Giovanni Arrighi Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, Sanyika Shakur, aka Monster Kody Scott 'AIAIM' 'Markets and Anti-markets in the World Economy', Manuel Delanda NNW 'The Myth of'the New Deal', Ronald Rodosh MR Molecular Revolution: Psychiahy and Politics, Mix Guattari Mr Macchina Tempo, Antonio Negri 'NOL' 'Nonorganic Life', Manuel Delanda 'NNVW' 'The Next World War: World System Cycles and Trends', Christopher Chase-Dunn& Bruce Podobnik oc Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue ivith Nature, Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stenger PG Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertionof Space in Critical Social Themy, Edward Soja Axiomatics: The Apparatus of Capitalism iv PVM The Politics of [Vorld-Economy. The States, The Movements,and The Civilizations, Immanuel Wallerstein SDBP 'The Society of DismemberedBody Parts', Alphonso Lingis SP Speed and Politics, Paul Virilio ss Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord 'TCU 'The Challenge of Complexity', Ilya Prigogine & Peter Allen TCCDM Thinking in Complexity, The Complex Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind, Klaus Mainzer TD The Theatre and Its Douhle, Antonin Artaud 'TGM' 'The Geology of Morals: A Neo-Materialist Interpretation', Manuel Delanda TKM The Thought of Karl Marx, David McLellan 6UC9 'Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control and the Ecology of Fear', Mike Davis UG A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Brian Massumi TEESR' 'Virtual 'Environments and the Emergence of Synthetic Reason', Manuel Delanda WAIM War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, Manuel Delanda vm Miat is Philosophy?, Gilles Deleuze & Mix Guattari IVVKLAiI 'Who Killed Los Angeles? A Political Autopsy', Mike Davis 'Y4MAH' 'Who Killed Los Angeles? Part Two: The Verdict is Given', Mike Davis Key to Abbreviations and Thesis Outline V Thesis Outline Introduction- YO9 e-w-5 I Deleuze and Guattafi's Work Braudel a) Power Centres and Third
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