Capitalism. A single logic or several? Social heterogeneity and agency in Postone and Fraser

Authors

  • Facundo Nahuel Martín Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas – Universidad de Buenos Aires; Universidad Pedagógica Nacional; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Abstract

Nancy Fraser and Moishe Postone are two important figures in contemporary critical theory. Both share similar political-intellectual pursuits, as they offer broad critical theories of capitalist society. They pay attention to the plethora of forms of resistance, collective action and political mobilization that are structured around social movements. At the same time, Fraser and Postone thematize the self-moving dynamics of capital as subject as the structural (and reified) core of capitalism. This enables them to articulate a concept of capitalist society informed by the Marxian critique of political economy. However, the aforementioned coincidences do not enable a simple synthesis of their theories. Fraser (I will focus on her writings from 2012 onwards) partly follows Marx's critique of political economy, but analyzes other, not strictly economic, dimensions of capitalist society as well. She develops an expanded theory of capitalism, a complex social system that is not structured solely by value-oriented production. Postone, on the other hand, works on the categorical reconstruction internal to the critique of political economy. I will try to formulate the basic elements of a dialogue between the two, focusing on the relation between agency, structure, contingency and necessity. In my view, Postone is mistaken when he intends to reduce capitalist relations to the development of value, labor and the commodity. Fraser, however, does not pay sufficient attention to the specifically historical character of capital as a social form. I will argue that the concept of capital as subject cannot, by its fundamental structural determinations, totalize society. It is a logically totalizing but materially truncated subject, incomplete in its effective social dynamics. Capital is confronted with other "ontologies", which it must subsume or with which it must articulate in each historical moment, but which do not derive from its internal determination.

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Author Biography

Facundo Nahuel Martín, Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas – Universidad de Buenos Aires; Universidad Pedagógica Nacional; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas – Universidad de Buenos Aires; Universidad Pedagógica Nacional; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Published

2023-07-03

How to Cite

Martín, F. N. . (2023). Capitalism. A single logic or several? Social heterogeneity and agency in Postone and Fraser. Revista Pilquen. Sección Ciencias Sociales, 26(2), 62–84. Retrieved from http://170.210.83.53/index.php/Sociales/article/view/4818