Carsten Hermann-Pillath presents a working paper on ‘Elements of a critical theory of the economy’

The text puts together the chapter summaries of the book ‘Elements of a critical theory of the economy’ (German: Elemente einer kritischen Theorie der Wirtschaft’). I finished a draft version of the book at the end of 2016 and will now resume work on the manuscript, which should be completed late summer this year. This book is a comprehensive critique of standard economics, including new developments such as behavioural economics, and proposes an alternative approach that is ‘critical’. This means that I approach economics as a discipline that is performative, meaning that it is part and parcel of the economy, and that cannot claim to be able to adopt an external analytical standpoint. I argue that many developments of economics in recent years show this critical potential endogenously, and so I build on the internal debate in economics to design my own alternative. The book deals with most fundamentals of economics, such as the theory of the individual, macroeconomics, institutions, and economic policy. In the end, I suggest an ‘utopia’ of the market economy that would radically change most existing institutions of capitalism.

Charles Taylor, famous philosopher and social theorist, in Erfurt

Charles Taylor, Canada, one of the pioneers of communitarianism, will hold two one-day international workshops at the Max Weber College of the University of Erfurt in May 2017. On 2 May (‘Resonance, Romanticism and Critical Theory’) is concerned with the question of the extent to which romantic thinking can be critically opposed to accelerated modernism. Is romantic thinking merely a longing for the past, or is it a criticism moving forward, so that critical theories can still learn from it today? At the first event, Prof. Hartmut Rosa, whose award-winning book Resonance - A Sociology of World Relations (2016), is regarded by some critics as a romantic work, as well as members of the Graduate College, Jena University, ‘Modellromantik’ will be present. In the follow-up workshop on 11 May the linguistic roots of Taylor's The Language Animal, on which Taylor is currently working, will be discussed with regards to the linguistic foundations of a romantic ‘criticism’. The question will be asked: What exactly is poetry in romanticism? What is the understanding of language, and how has both post-romantic poetry and philosophy influenced it? Is it merely a subjective longing, or are dimensions of reality surface in a too rationalized world view and a purely instrumental world relationship which reveals that the world must not look cold and silent? But how can these dimensions be retrieved philosophically today without being an esoteric or subjective endeavour?

Christoph Henning, one of the organizers of the workshops, says about the significance of the workshops in the Max Weber program's research program: ‘Normativity, which is often the basis of social criticism, mostly relies on evidence of the participants’ daily lives. If one asks, however, for the sources of these evidence-based phenomena, often aesthetic phenomena play an important role, too. If one wants to scrutinize social criticism, one has to question these so-called daily experiences: are they sufficient to not only stipulate, but also give reason for criticism? How would one need to specify such aesthetic or romantic criticism? Charles Taylor's extensive work on the history of ethical thinking since the modern age, as well as on theories of action and language, invites the reader to take a closer look at more recent approaches such as those of Hartmut Rosa.’

The workshops are both held at the Max-Weber-Kolleg. The number of participants is limited, and interested parties are asked to register with Christoph Henning (christoph.henning@uni-erfurt.de).

Hannah Peaceman presents a working paper on Jewish political philosophy in the German-speaking Diaspora

The project aims to tackle the universality, secularity and practice of Jewish Political Philosophy in the 19th century and until the Shoah. Reference-points are Jewish-German perspectives that were involved in political debates until the Shoah. They have not been systematically accounted for since then from a philosophical perspective. The aim is to reflect their potential as critical perspectives on society that can evoke its transformation towards a pluralistic living together with reference to Jewish concepts like Tikkun Olam which means to "improve the world". The aim is to develop systematic and normative grounds for Jewish political philosophy that can be universalized and secularized.

Dietmar Mieth on "Perfectioning and Bettering Human Beings"

Yesterday, the working paper by Dietmar Mieth on "Perfectioning and Bettering Human Beings" has been discussed at the Max Weber Center, Erfurt.

Here the abstract:

In the tradition of the Christian religion we find a lot of ambivalent perspectives within ethics. These traditions often demonstrate a teleological concept of the world. The dream of perfection is always present, but mainly restricted to the individual concept of life even if this concept is often generalized. How does religious teleology respond to the technical teleology of the modern world? The technical teleology has developed without recognizing or feeling the finitude as a (positive) condition of humans. Nevertheless we have in the sciences traces of religious options. On the other side the covenant with God's teleology is replaced by the secular covenant of modern societies with science, technic and economy. In contrast to the different forms of cooperation between religious motifs and technical development religious traditions often opt for against methods of enhancement and ideas of transhumanism. The objections are often coming from arguments against an attitude of “playing God”. History shows that these objections are often not justified. But even within these ambivalent objections one may find insights which make sense in an actual ethical debate: as “principles of precaution” and feelings for the limits of human finitude. One question of a critical theory of religion is whether we can find just and good insights even as part of a wrong position and decision (pace T.W.Adorno).

“But wait!”, you ask, “that’s what Marxists have been saying years”, review of Hartmut Rosa's "Social Acceleration"

Eugene Wolters, in his review of Harmut Rosa’s latest book Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity '... strongly defends the idea that our society is, in fact, accelerating. While that sounds fairly straight forward, and somewhat boring, Rosa manages to complicate (for the better) the question of time to explain how time functions as a social structure.
“But wait!”, you ask, “that’s what Marxists have been saying years.” After all, it’s the technological development of capitalist production that undergirds all of this accelerating business. Advances in computers, transportation and machinery are all pushed by the capital’s quest to squeeze more surplus value out of its laborers.' But he continues: '
But what Rosa is arguing is far more nuanced, and somewhat contradictory, to the Marxist argument.  He argues:

However, this kind of reductionistic interpretation seems inadequate on two grounds. In the first place, it is precisely not capable of clarifying the process that mediates between economic structural imperative and subjective acceleration of their consumption behavior and thus their pace of life when for them it is not only the case that they have no economic incentive to do so but also that it would land them in financial difficulty…In the second place, the materialistic reduction remains blind to the ideational and cultural presuppositions of the unleashing of the forces of production and acceleration, as the representatives of a cultural criticism of the economic primacy thesis would argue.

Amid all of this talk of acceleration, that are in fact zones of strategic “deceleration” that serve ideological purposes. “Unplugging” oneself from technology, the proliferation of yoga and meditation, and the recreational return to the “old ways” of woodworking, fishing, hunting etc are all ideological tools to offset the havoc that social acceleration has wrought on our society.'
To read the entire review, go here.