The soul at work (the introduction)
«Those who maintain that the soul is incorporeal are talking nonsense, because it would not be able to act upon or be acted upon if it were of such a nature; but in actuality both these functions are clearly distinguishable in the case of the soul.»
Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus, par. 67
The soul I discuss in this book does not have much to do with the spirit. It is rather the vital breath that converts the biological matter into an animated body.
I want to discuss of the soul in a materialistic way. What the body can do, that is its soul, as said Spinoza.
In order to describe the processes of subjection that come together with the formation of industrial society, Foucault tells the story of modernity as disciplination of the body, as building the institutions and devices capable of subduing the body within the machines of social production. Industrial exploitation concerns bodies, muscles and arms. Those bodies would not have any value if they weren't animated, mobile, intelligent, reactive.
The rise of postindustrial process of production, which I will name Semiocapitalism, involves mind, language, creativity as primary tools of production of value. In the sphere of digital production exploitation is exerted essentially on the semiotic flux produced by human time at work.
In this sense we speak of immaterial production. Language and money are not at all metaphors, and yet they are immaterial. They are nothing, and yet can do all: they move, displace, multiply, destroy. They are the soul of the semiocapital.
If we want to continue today the genealogical work of Michel Foucault we have to shift the center of theoretical attention towards the automatisms of mental reactivity, of language and imagination, therefore towards the new forms of alienation and precariousness of mental work in the Net.
In this book I will examine anew the Marxist language which was dominant in the 1960s, trying to reestablish its vitality, in rapport with the languages of post-structuralism, schizo-analysis and cyberculture.
Despite the fact that the term “soul” is never used in the language of that historical period, I want to use it – metaphorically and even a bit ironically – in order to rethink the core of many questions referring to the issue of alienation. In the Hegelian vision this issue is defined in the relationship between human essence and activity, while in the materialist vision of Workerism alienation is defined within the relationship of human time and capitalist value, that is to say within the reification of both body and soul, the becoming thing of human action.
In the Hegelian-Marxist tradition of the twentieth Century, the concept of "alienation" refers precisely to the relation existing among corporeality and human essence. For Hegel the word "alienation" (Entäusserung) refers to the self becoming other, consequently to the the spirit not being within the self, to the historical and mundane separation existing between the Being (l'Essere) and the Existent (l'Ente).
In Marx, the concept of alienation signifies the split between life and labor, the split among the workers’ physical activity and their humanity, their essence as humans. Young Marx, author of the 1844 Manuscripts, the main reference for radical philosophy in the 1960s, attributes a central meaning to the notion of alienation.
In Marx’s parlance, as in Hegel before, Alienation (Entäusserung) and estrangement (Entfremdung) are two terms that define the same process from two different standpoints. The first one defines the bewilderment of the consciousness of the self in relation to the thing, within the dominance of capital; the second term refers to the consciousness facing the scene of exteriority, and the creation of an autonomous consciousness, starting with the refusal of the depending on work.
Italian Workerism (operaismo) overturns the dominant vision of Marxism in those years: the working class is no longer conceived as a passive object of alienation, instead as an active subject of the refusal that builds community, starting with its estrangement from the interests of capitalistic society.
Alienation is then considered not as bewilderment of human authenticity, but as estrangement from capitalistic interest, therefore as a necessary condition for the construction - in a space estranged and hostile to labor - of an ultimately human relationship.
Similarly, in the context of French Post-Structuralism, an overturning of the traditional vision of clinical alienation is finding its way: schizophrenia, considered by psychiatry only as a division and loss of auto-consciousness, is rethought by Felix Guattari in totally new terms: schizophrenia is not the passive effect of a scission of consciousness, rather it is a form of manifold consciousness, prolific and nomadic.
In this book I want to compare the conceptual framework of the ‘60’s, based on the concepts of Alienation and Totalisation, with the present conceptual framework, which is based on the concepts of biopolitics and psychopatology of desire.
In the first part of the book I want to describe the relationship between philosophy and labor in the ‘60’s. In the wave of Hegelian Renaissance and Critical Theory, the industrial labor was seen by the point of view of alienation, and the rebellion of industrial workers against the exploitation was seen as the beginning of a process of dis-alienation.
In the second part of the book I will account for the process of mentalization of working process, and the consequent enslavement of the soul. The soul put to work: this is the new form of alienation. The desiring energy is therefore trapped in the trick of self-enterprise, the libidinal investment is regulated according to the rules of economy, attention is captured in the precariousness of the cellular network: every fragment of mental activity must be transformed into capital. I’ll describe the channeling of Desire in the process of valorization and the psychopathological implications of this subjugation of soul to the process of work.
In the third part I’ll retrace the evolution of radical theory from the idealistic concept of Alienation to the analytical concept of psychopathology. I’ll compare the philosophy of Desire (Deleuze and Guattari) with the philosophy of Simulation (Baudrillard), in order to suggest their difference and also their complementarity.
In the fourth part of the book I’ll try to outline the effects of precarisation of labor – especially cognitive labor – and the effects of biopolitical subjugation of language and affection.
In the conclusion, I’ll try to ask some questions about the current collapse of the integrated psycho-machinic organism that is the Global Economy. The collapse of the Global Economy could be the opening of a new era of autonomy, and of emancipation of the soul.
Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus, par. 67
The soul I discuss in this book does not have much to do with the spirit. It is rather the vital breath that converts the biological matter into an animated body.
I want to discuss of the soul in a materialistic way. What the body can do, that is its soul, as said Spinoza.
In order to describe the processes of subjection that come together with the formation of industrial society, Foucault tells the story of modernity as disciplination of the body, as building the institutions and devices capable of subduing the body within the machines of social production. Industrial exploitation concerns bodies, muscles and arms. Those bodies would not have any value if they weren't animated, mobile, intelligent, reactive.
The rise of postindustrial process of production, which I will name Semiocapitalism, involves mind, language, creativity as primary tools of production of value. In the sphere of digital production exploitation is exerted essentially on the semiotic flux produced by human time at work.
In this sense we speak of immaterial production. Language and money are not at all metaphors, and yet they are immaterial. They are nothing, and yet can do all: they move, displace, multiply, destroy. They are the soul of the semiocapital.
If we want to continue today the genealogical work of Michel Foucault we have to shift the center of theoretical attention towards the automatisms of mental reactivity, of language and imagination, therefore towards the new forms of alienation and precariousness of mental work in the Net.
In this book I will examine anew the Marxist language which was dominant in the 1960s, trying to reestablish its vitality, in rapport with the languages of post-structuralism, schizo-analysis and cyberculture.
Despite the fact that the term “soul” is never used in the language of that historical period, I want to use it – metaphorically and even a bit ironically – in order to rethink the core of many questions referring to the issue of alienation. In the Hegelian vision this issue is defined in the relationship between human essence and activity, while in the materialist vision of Workerism alienation is defined within the relationship of human time and capitalist value, that is to say within the reification of both body and soul, the becoming thing of human action.
In the Hegelian-Marxist tradition of the twentieth Century, the concept of "alienation" refers precisely to the relation existing among corporeality and human essence. For Hegel the word "alienation" (Entäusserung) refers to the self becoming other, consequently to the the spirit not being within the self, to the historical and mundane separation existing between the Being (l'Essere) and the Existent (l'Ente).
In Marx, the concept of alienation signifies the split between life and labor, the split among the workers’ physical activity and their humanity, their essence as humans. Young Marx, author of the 1844 Manuscripts, the main reference for radical philosophy in the 1960s, attributes a central meaning to the notion of alienation.
In Marx’s parlance, as in Hegel before, Alienation (Entäusserung) and estrangement (Entfremdung) are two terms that define the same process from two different standpoints. The first one defines the bewilderment of the consciousness of the self in relation to the thing, within the dominance of capital; the second term refers to the consciousness facing the scene of exteriority, and the creation of an autonomous consciousness, starting with the refusal of the depending on work.
Italian Workerism (operaismo) overturns the dominant vision of Marxism in those years: the working class is no longer conceived as a passive object of alienation, instead as an active subject of the refusal that builds community, starting with its estrangement from the interests of capitalistic society.
Alienation is then considered not as bewilderment of human authenticity, but as estrangement from capitalistic interest, therefore as a necessary condition for the construction - in a space estranged and hostile to labor - of an ultimately human relationship.
Similarly, in the context of French Post-Structuralism, an overturning of the traditional vision of clinical alienation is finding its way: schizophrenia, considered by psychiatry only as a division and loss of auto-consciousness, is rethought by Felix Guattari in totally new terms: schizophrenia is not the passive effect of a scission of consciousness, rather it is a form of manifold consciousness, prolific and nomadic.
In this book I want to compare the conceptual framework of the ‘60’s, based on the concepts of Alienation and Totalisation, with the present conceptual framework, which is based on the concepts of biopolitics and psychopatology of desire.
In the first part of the book I want to describe the relationship between philosophy and labor in the ‘60’s. In the wave of Hegelian Renaissance and Critical Theory, the industrial labor was seen by the point of view of alienation, and the rebellion of industrial workers against the exploitation was seen as the beginning of a process of dis-alienation.
In the second part of the book I will account for the process of mentalization of working process, and the consequent enslavement of the soul. The soul put to work: this is the new form of alienation. The desiring energy is therefore trapped in the trick of self-enterprise, the libidinal investment is regulated according to the rules of economy, attention is captured in the precariousness of the cellular network: every fragment of mental activity must be transformed into capital. I’ll describe the channeling of Desire in the process of valorization and the psychopathological implications of this subjugation of soul to the process of work.
In the third part I’ll retrace the evolution of radical theory from the idealistic concept of Alienation to the analytical concept of psychopathology. I’ll compare the philosophy of Desire (Deleuze and Guattari) with the philosophy of Simulation (Baudrillard), in order to suggest their difference and also their complementarity.
In the fourth part of the book I’ll try to outline the effects of precarisation of labor – especially cognitive labor – and the effects of biopolitical subjugation of language and affection.
In the conclusion, I’ll try to ask some questions about the current collapse of the integrated psycho-machinic organism that is the Global Economy. The collapse of the Global Economy could be the opening of a new era of autonomy, and of emancipation of the soul.
Tags: cognitive labor, semiocapitalism
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