Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things
There have been several criticisms of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) from the political Left. Perhaps the most frequent one has been that OOO’s aspiration to speak of objects apart from all their relations runs afoul of Marx’s critique of “commodity fetishism.” The main purpose of this article is to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Warsaw
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture |
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| Online Access: | http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/object-oriented-ontology-and-commodity-fetishism-kant-marx-heidegger-and-things/ |
| _version_ | 1818667502969815040 |
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| author | Graham Harman |
| author_facet | Graham Harman |
| author_sort | Graham Harman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There have been several criticisms of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) from the political Left. Perhaps the most frequent one has been that OOO’s aspiration to speak of objects apart from all their relations runs afoul of Marx’s critique of “commodity fetishism.” The main purpose of this article is to show that even a cursory reading of the sections on commodity in Marx’s Capital does not support such an accusation. For Marx, the sphere of entities that are not commodities is actually quite wide, including all the beings of nature not subject to exchange, as well as bartered goods, and tithes and rents paid in kind to feudal lords. In short, the theory of commodity fetishism is a theory of v a l u e, not an anti-realist theory of b e i n g, and thus does not touch on OOO at all. In closing, I make some brief comments on Marx’s relation to Kantian formalism and to Heidegger’s famous account of present-at-hand (vorhanden) and ready-to-hand (zuhanden). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T06:21:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-295b44de0e36443aafc02ddfc878b86f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2544-302X 2544-302X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T06:21:27Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Warsaw |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture |
| spelling | doaj.art-295b44de0e36443aafc02ddfc878b86f2022-12-21T22:00:24ZengUniversity of WarsawEidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture2544-302X2544-302X2017-12-0112283610.26319/2913Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and ThingsGraham Harman0Southern California Institute of ArchitectureThere have been several criticisms of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) from the political Left. Perhaps the most frequent one has been that OOO’s aspiration to speak of objects apart from all their relations runs afoul of Marx’s critique of “commodity fetishism.” The main purpose of this article is to show that even a cursory reading of the sections on commodity in Marx’s Capital does not support such an accusation. For Marx, the sphere of entities that are not commodities is actually quite wide, including all the beings of nature not subject to exchange, as well as bartered goods, and tithes and rents paid in kind to feudal lords. In short, the theory of commodity fetishism is a theory of v a l u e, not an anti-realist theory of b e i n g, and thus does not touch on OOO at all. In closing, I make some brief comments on Marx’s relation to Kantian formalism and to Heidegger’s famous account of present-at-hand (vorhanden) and ready-to-hand (zuhanden).http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/object-oriented-ontology-and-commodity-fetishism-kant-marx-heidegger-and-things/object-oriented ontologymarxcommodity fetishismheidegger |
| spellingShingle | Graham Harman Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture object-oriented ontology marx commodity fetishism heidegger |
| title | Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things |
| title_full | Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things |
| title_fullStr | Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things |
| title_full_unstemmed | Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things |
| title_short | Object-Oriented Ontology and Commodity Fetishism: Kant, Marx, Heidegger, and Things |
| title_sort | object oriented ontology and commodity fetishism kant marx heidegger and things |
| topic | object-oriented ontology marx commodity fetishism heidegger |
| url | http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/object-oriented-ontology-and-commodity-fetishism-kant-marx-heidegger-and-things/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT grahamharman objectorientedontologyandcommodityfetishismkantmarxheideggerandthings |