Theory Caught Up in Dialectics: Some Reflections on Asger Sørensen’s Capitalism, Alienation and Critique

Authors

  • Marjan Ivković Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
  • Srđan Prodanović Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
  • Milan Urošević Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2101011I

Keywords:

dialectics, determinate negation, Foucault, Degrowth, Bataille

Abstract

This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sørensen’s arguments in Capitalism, Alienation and Critique, which thematize Sørensen’s overarching understanding of the relationship between theory and practice: his general methodological perspective on critical theory, its distinctive epistemology and its anchoring in the empirical world. The paper authors each try to push Sørensen on these crucial points by considering how Sørensen’s variant of critical theory actually operates, scrutinizing in more detail the particular relationship between the ‘experience of injustice’, which for Sørensen constitutes the empirical foothold for critical theory, and the theoretical diagnosis of social reality which the critical theorist should formulate against the backdrop of this experience.

References

Adorno, Theodor (1981), Negative Dialectics, New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

Brodsky, Garry M. (1969), “Absolute Idealism and John Dewey’s Instrumentalism”, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 5 (1): 44–62.

D’Alisa, Giacomo; Demaria, Federico; Kallis, Giorgios (2014), Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era, London: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel (1980), Power/Knowledge, New York: Pantheon Books.

Honneth, Axel (2007), Disrespect: the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory, Cambridge: Polity Press.

—. (2009), Pathologies of Reason: On the Legacy of Critical Theory, New York: Columbia University Press.

Marx, Karl, (1989), Collected Works: Volume 24, New York: International Publishers.

Sørensen, Asger (2019), Capitalism, Alienation and Critique: Studies in Economy and Dialectics, (Dialectics, Deontology and Democracy, Vol. I), Leiden, Boston: Brill.

Published

30.03.2021

How to Cite

Ivković, M., Prodanović, S. and Urošević, M. (2021) “Theory Caught Up in Dialectics: Some Reflections on Asger Sørensen’s Capitalism, Alienation and Critique”, Filozofija i društvo/Philosophy and Society. Belgrade, Serbia, 32(1), pp. 11–21. doi: 10.2298/FID2101011I.