The Radical Fool of Capitalism

The Radical Fool of Capitalism
Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
Total Pages : 218
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780262347143
ISBN-13 : 0262347148
Rating : 4/5 (43 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Radical Fool of Capitalism by : Christian Welzbacher

Download or read book The Radical Fool of Capitalism written by Christian Welzbacher and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-04-20 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh interpretation of Jeremy Bentham, finding that his “radical foolery” embodied a social ethics that was revolutionary for its time. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) is best remembered today as the founder of utilitarianism (a philosophy infamously abused by the Victorians) and the conceiver of the Panopticon, the circular prison house in which all prisoners could be seen by an unseen observer—later seized upon by Michel Foucault as the apotheosis of the neoliberal control society. In this volume in the Untimely Meditation series, Christian Welzbacher offers a new interpretation of Bentham, arguing that his “radical foolery” (paraphrasing Goethe's characterization of Bentham) actually embodied a social ethics that was new for its time and demands proper historical contextualization rather than retroactive analysis from the vantage point of late capitalism. Welzbacher provides just such an analysis, offering an account of the two great utilitarian projects that occupied Bentham all his life: the Panopticon and the Auto-Icon. Welzbacher rescues the Panopticon from the misapprehensions of Foucault, Orwell, and Lacan, arguing that Bentham saw the Panopticon as a pedagogical instrument incorporating the tenets of reason; construction and function, plan and influence, architecture and politics are brought into alignment. Bentham extolled the discovery in words that could easily be ascribed to Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut, or any other modernist architect. The Auto-Icon expressed Bentham's theories that the dead should benefit later generations; these theories were effectively sealed when Bentham decided to have his body preserved and put on display. (It can be seen today in a cabinet at University College London.) He also donated his inner organs to science—a practice outlawed at the time—and posthumously stage-managed his own ceremonial autopsy. Welzbacher reveals a Bentham who raised questions that feel familiar and current, invoking topoi that would come to define the modern era and that reverberate to this day.


The Radical Fool of Capitalism Related Books

The Radical Fool of Capitalism
Language: en
Pages: 218
Authors: Christian Welzbacher
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-04-20 - Publisher: MIT Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A fresh interpretation of Jeremy Bentham, finding that his “radical foolery” embodied a social ethics that was revolutionary for its time. Jeremy Bentham (1
Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy
Language: en
Pages: 345
Authors: William H. Janeway
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-10-08 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A unique insight into the interaction between the state, financiers and entrepreneurs in the modern innovation economy.
Capitalism
Language: en
Pages: 234
Authors: Fred L. Block
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-05-04 - Publisher: Univ of California Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Virtually everyone—left, right, and center—believes that capitalist economies are autonomous, coherent, and regulated by their own internal laws. This view
The Origin of Capitalism
Language: en
Pages: 225
Authors: Ellen Meiksins Wood
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-05-02 - Publisher: Verso Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An expanded new edition of the classic, pithy account of capitalism’s origins—“a must read” for students of political theory and anyone interested in ec
The Machinery of Freedom
Language: en
Pages: 268
Authors: David D. Friedman
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 1973 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK