Being, Becoming, Subsumption: The Kantian Roots of a Marxist Problematic

Authors

  • Andrés Saenz de Sicilia UNAM

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15174/rv.v14i29.581

Abstract

One of the fundamental tensions within Marx’s writings arises from the complex relationship between the systematic and historical aspects of his description of capitalist society. This article argues that among all the concepts deployed by Marx ‘subsumption’ is key with respect to this issue. The different forms of capitalist subsumption analysed by Marx designate the mechanisms by which capital shapes the developmental dynamics of modern societies. Yet the concept is undertheorized in Marx’s writings and has been subject to divergent interpretations. Its implications remain contested. By returning to the philosophical origins of subsumption, in particular to Kant’s ‘critical’ reconceptualisation of it as a productive act of ‘synthetic determination’, this article seeks to establish its centrality for Marxist thought. Subsumption, it is argued, is the fundamental category of analysis linking capital as system to capital as history.

Author Biography

Andrés Saenz de Sicilia, UNAM

Andrés Saenz de Sicilia received his PhD and MA from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University, London and his BA from the university of Sussex. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has previously held appointments at University College London, the University of Amsterdam, Newcastle University and University of the Arts London. His areas of research include German idealism, Marxism, Critical Theory and Aesthetics as well as the work of Bolívar Echeverría. Recent publications include "Production=Signification: Towards a Semiotic Materialism" (with Sandro Brito Rojas) in Language Sciences (2018), ‘Bolívar Echeverría’, in the SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory (2018) and "The Global Distribution of the Ethical" for HKW.de (2020). His new book, a study of the concept of subsumption in Kant, Hegel, Marx and beyond, will be published by Brill in 2021.

Downloads

Published

2021-11-24

How to Cite

Saenz de Sicilia, A. (2021). Being, Becoming, Subsumption: The Kantian Roots of a Marxist Problematic. Valenciana, 14(29), 253–282. https://doi.org/10.15174/rv.v14i29.581

Issue

No. 29 (2022): Valenciana 29, enero-junio 2022

Section

Artículos

License

Author(s) who publish in this journal do accept the next conditions:

According to copyright regulations, Valenciana does recognize and respect the authors’ moral right, as well as the right of property, which will be assigned to the journal for its diffusion in open access.

Valenciana does not charge authors for the submission, editorial process or publication in the journal.

All texts published and distributed by Valenciana (without exception) are supported by the license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which allows third parties to use the publication as long as they mention the author and the first publication.

Authors can make other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive use of his article published in Valenciana (e.g. including it in an institutional repository or in printed/electronic media), as long as it is explicitly clarified that the article was published for the first time in this journal.

For these purposes, authors must sign and send the letter of submission and copyright transfer form in a PDF file to this email address: revistavalenciana@gmail.com

This journal is under a license by Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)).