Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Suffering Free Markets: A “Classical” Buddhist Critique of Capitalist Conceptions of “Value”

Suffering Free Markets: A “Classical” Buddhist Critique of Capitalist Conceptions of “Value” Amy K. Donahue KennesawStateUniversity adonahu3@kennesaw.edu I Giventhepublic'saffectiveresponsestovolatileglobalfinancialmarketsinrecent years,onemightexpectthat"we"asasocietywouldinterrogatecapitalistconceptions of "value."After all, if flows of abstract capital are untethered from tangible realities,asthe2008collapseofglobalfinancialmarketsshowedtheycanbe,and if the sup osedly concrete gains that people earn from their labors, such as penp sionsandsalaries,remainvulnerabletothevicissitudesofthisabstraction,thencapitalism'spromisesmightbethoughttolosetheirappeal.Capitalistpracticesofvalue productionworkthroughanticipation,andthefutureofcapitalismnowappearsto bebadformostpeople.Surely,onemightthink,"our"politicalandsocialinstitutions wouldexplorealternatives. However,Marxisttheoristswouldcallsuchexpectationsnaive.Theexistenceof publiclyrepresentativesocialsubjectswhomightrationallyreassesspoliticallydominantassumptionsis,theyargue,tetherednomoretomaterialcircumstancesthan the market value of a person's home or the compensation she gets for her work. Theequalandreasonablesocialsubjectsofcapital we's"whomightcollectively --" choose,ornot,toreformsocialpractices renostartingpointsfor,oragentsof, --a economicaction,ascapitalistideologysupposes,butareinsteadimaginaryyetconcreteeffectsofcapitalistpracticesofvalueproduction.Becausetheseselvesofcapital areimaginaryand concrete,theyarevolatile,andnomorepotentorrealthanthe wealththatmiddle-classworkersthoughttheyhadbeforethe2008financialcollapse. Marxwritesthatabstractcapitalhingesonasequenceofsubstitutionsbetween materially and uniquely worthwhile things and things of imagined, generic value, betweenphenomenathatarehandyandanticipationsofexchange.Further,hecontends,thissequenceofsubstitutionsislinkedwiththesocialsubjectsorselvesthat liberalcapitalistdemocraciesproduce.Inthefollowing,wewilllooktotheDiñngaDharmakrtitexttradition's"no-self"and"exclusionoftheother"semanticstodefendtheseMarxistdenialsofthesubjectofcapitalisteconomicsandassociationsof this illusory self with particularly modern kinds of social violence. In the process, throughreadingsofJudithButlerandDiñnga,wewilltakepreliminaryspeculative stepstowarda"classical"Buddhistaccountofthesufferingoffree-marketeconomics by distinguishing capitalism's "abstract sufferings of anticipation" from its "actual sufferingsofexclusion" woformsofsufferingthatchampionsofcapitalmustenact --t tomakeabstract,nonexistentpublicselvesseemmanifest. PhilosophyEast&WestVolume64,Number4October2014866­886 ©2014byUniversityofHawai`iPress ThevaluepracticesthatMarxcriticizedhavegrownmoresociallyentrenched sincehisnineteenth-centuryintervention,tothepointthat,asatleastonecultural observerhasremarked,manytodayfinditeasiertoimaginetheendoftheworld thantoimaginetheendofcapitalisteconomicassumptions.1Nonetheless,capitalism's conceptions of "value" are again in crisis. As global markets digest an extended credit crunch, workers labor more for less, and do so under increasingly strictconditionsofsurveillanceandstandardization;conversely,executivesalaries andcorporateprofitsseemtogrowwithoutapparentlimit,andthe"work"ofcapital is subject to historically lax regulatory oversight. Middle-class standards of living hich were always an exception and for most not an aspiration annot --w --c now be anticipated even for large swaths of those in "developed" capitalist democracies. A "classical" Buddhist critique of free-market capitalism might cast light on this predicament, and help to equip http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Philosophy East and West University of Hawai'I Press

Suffering Free Markets: A “Classical” Buddhist Critique of Capitalist Conceptions of “Value”

Donahue, Amy K.
Philosophy East and West , Volume 64 (4) – Nov 5, 2014
Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-hawai-i-press/suffering-free-markets-a-classical-buddhist-critique-of-capitalist-5Z0jTroyy0

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1529-1898
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Amy K. Donahue KennesawStateUniversity adonahu3@kennesaw.edu I Giventhepublic'saffectiveresponsestovolatileglobalfinancialmarketsinrecent years,onemightexpectthat"we"asasocietywouldinterrogatecapitalistconceptions of "value."After all, if flows of abstract capital are untethered from tangible realities,asthe2008collapseofglobalfinancialmarketsshowedtheycanbe,and if the sup osedly concrete gains that people earn from their labors, such as penp sionsandsalaries,remainvulnerabletothevicissitudesofthisabstraction,thencapitalism'spromisesmightbethoughttolosetheirappeal.Capitalistpracticesofvalue productionworkthroughanticipation,andthefutureofcapitalismnowappearsto bebadformostpeople.Surely,onemightthink,"our"politicalandsocialinstitutions wouldexplorealternatives. However,Marxisttheoristswouldcallsuchexpectationsnaive.Theexistenceof publiclyrepresentativesocialsubjectswhomightrationallyreassesspoliticallydominantassumptionsis,theyargue,tetherednomoretomaterialcircumstancesthan the market value of a person's home or the compensation she gets for her work. Theequalandreasonablesocialsubjectsofcapital we's"whomightcollectively --" choose,ornot,toreformsocialpractices renostartingpointsfor,oragentsof, --a economicaction,ascapitalistideologysupposes,butareinsteadimaginaryyetconcreteeffectsofcapitalistpracticesofvalueproduction.Becausetheseselvesofcapital areimaginaryand concrete,theyarevolatile,andnomorepotentorrealthanthe wealththatmiddle-classworkersthoughttheyhadbeforethe2008financialcollapse. Marxwritesthatabstractcapitalhingesonasequenceofsubstitutionsbetween materially and uniquely worthwhile things and things of imagined, generic value, betweenphenomenathatarehandyandanticipationsofexchange.Further,hecontends,thissequenceofsubstitutionsislinkedwiththesocialsubjectsorselvesthat liberalcapitalistdemocraciesproduce.Inthefollowing,wewilllooktotheDiñngaDharmakrtitexttradition's"no-self"and"exclusionoftheother"semanticstodefendtheseMarxistdenialsofthesubjectofcapitalisteconomicsandassociationsof this illusory self with particularly modern kinds of social violence. In the process, throughreadingsofJudithButlerandDiñnga,wewilltakepreliminaryspeculative stepstowarda"classical"Buddhistaccountofthesufferingoffree-marketeconomics by distinguishing capitalism's "abstract sufferings of anticipation" from its "actual sufferingsofexclusion" woformsofsufferingthatchampionsofcapitalmustenact --t tomakeabstract,nonexistentpublicselvesseemmanifest. PhilosophyEast&WestVolume64,Number4October2014866­886 ©2014byUniversityofHawai`iPress ThevaluepracticesthatMarxcriticizedhavegrownmoresociallyentrenched sincehisnineteenth-centuryintervention,tothepointthat,asatleastonecultural observerhasremarked,manytodayfinditeasiertoimaginetheendoftheworld thantoimaginetheendofcapitalisteconomicassumptions.1Nonetheless,capitalism's conceptions of "value" are again in crisis. As global markets digest an extended credit crunch, workers labor more for less, and do so under increasingly strictconditionsofsurveillanceandstandardization;conversely,executivesalaries andcorporateprofitsseemtogrowwithoutapparentlimit,andthe"work"ofcapital is subject to historically lax regulatory oversight. Middle-class standards of living hich were always an exception and for most not an aspiration annot --w --c now be anticipated even for large swaths of those in "developed" capitalist democracies. A "classical" Buddhist critique of free-market capitalism might cast light on this predicament, and help to equip

Journal

Philosophy East and West – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Nov 5, 2014

There are no references for this article.