RE: AUT: Statist Thinking

["Chris Hurl" <munkah@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris W:  >ps - Hegel does write about spontaneity and his notion of spontaneity is not causal.

I am aware of Hegel's critique of causality.

("if we stick to causality as such, we have it not in it's truth.  Such a causality is merely finite, and its finitude lies in retain the distinction between cause and effect unassimilated".)

To some extent my (mis)understandings of Hegel and D&G run parallel to one another, hence my difficulty in attempting to establish any sort of dialogue between the two.  When I was getting into D&G's stuff, I was not trying to suggest that Hegel's analysis could be reduced to causal chains.  Rather, I was trying to get at D&G's analysis of the 'event' as somehow irreducible and external.

As I mentioned in the beginning, my current encounter with Hegel is mediated through CLR James' "Notes" where he focuses on Being, Essence, and Notion in Hegel's Logic.  While I find James to be quite lucid and refreshing in his translation of Hegel, he certainly leaves out some stuff.  Now, I also understand that Hegel's thinking cannot be simply reduced to negative vs. positive.  I have come to understand that there is generally a third term.  James does not spend much time on 'sublation' and my recent encounters with this idea have been limited.  Nevertheless, in exploring the relationship between Hegel and Marx, I was attempting to argue that Marx adopts a more 'positive' approach in his analysis insofar as he largely grounds his analysis in existing social struggles.

I have recently began attempting to compile my fragmented knowledge of Hegel and D&G.  In reading such dense theoretical texts, I find myself forgetful.  Just as I think I understand them, I realize there's a whole other layer of complexity.  Now, I find in order to engage with this stuff, just reading it is not enough.  On the contrary, I find it quite useful to talk about it.  unfortunately, I do not have the time or energy to work through a vast philosphical treatise every time I post something and I have no background in philosophy.  Until now this has prevented me from speaking about these issues, given the dense theoretical discussions that take place on this listserv.  However, I do find this discussion to be quite useful in informing my engagement with these texts.

--chris



>From: chris wright <cwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

>Reply-To: aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>To: aut-op-sy <aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

>Subject: RE: AUT: Statist Thinking

>Date: 10 Nov 2004 23:59:57 -0500

>

>Chris H:

>Now the concept of Negativity in Hegelian thinking, I have always found

>deeply problematic.  While I try to reconcile my empathy with a critical

>Hegelian analysis (a la Marx and Debord) with D&G's analysis, I always

>find that Negativity is the sticking point.  But to what extent is a

>critical Hegelian standpoint grounded in the Negative?

>

>I am critical of Debord, to the extent that his analysis of the

>spectacle does not seem to pay any attention to positive struggles and

>consequently risks imploding in the myopic viewpoint of the spectacle.

>Likewise, it seems at times that Marx falls into the myopic viewpoint of

>Capital.

>

>And yet I think one of the virtues of Marx's stuff is that he moves

>towards a more positive position (contra Hegel).  Class struggle becomes

>a positive force, pushing Capital to expel the working class in the

>production process to the greatest extent possible through the

>introduction of machinery, etc.  Likewise, the situationist's stuff

>cannot be restricted to simply the spectacle, but rather they push

>through all sorts of positive measures (workers council's, etc).  It

>seems clear that capital will not simply generate irs own opposition.

>This is fundamentally a backwards analysis.  Rather, capital itself

>seems to be a sort of black hole generated by the positive activity of

>workers.

>

>Chris W:

>First, what do you think is meant by 'negativity'/negation?  Have you

>worked through Hegel's notion of 'sublation' (the better translation of

>aufhebung)?

>

>What I think is missing here is the relation of positive and negative,

>in all dialectical work (and this is why Debord and Marx have such a

>deep appreciation of Hegel.)  Hegel understood this as well, btw and it

>is distinctly not where he differs from Marx and Debord.

>

>However, I see not point in going into it here since I do not want to

>lecture on negation when it is better to read Hegel and Marx to see what

>is meant.  This is the source of many debates and much antipathy (see

>the whole tradition of post-Heidegger French philosophy which seems to

>hate nothing so much as negation/negativity in the dialectical sense.

>One wonders if it is not that more than anything that upsets them about

>dialectic.)

>

>Chris H:

>So then by beginning in struggle can the critical Hegelian perspective

>be reconciled with D&G?  I have doubts.  Yet it seems like both projects

>are opening onto a similar sense of praxis.

>

>Chris W:

>The object is not reconciliation, in dialectic, at least not in the

>sense I think you are using.  'Does Deleuze's work have a place in the

>movement of Spirit coming to know itself?' would be somewhat more

>accurate, though that has little importance here.  For all of my

>interest in Hegel, one cannot 'apply' Hegel or Hegelianize Marx.  Both

>notions go against what Hegel and Marx were doing.  Dialectic is not

>'applied'.  Negation is not mere destruction or opposition.  Of course I

>say that having played around a bit with Hegel's notion of Understanding

>in relation to the elections, but that was more shorthand for my own

>purposes.  To write that out for analysis would require more work and a

>different exposition.

>

>Cheers,

>Chris

>

>ps - Hegel does write about spontaneity and his notion of spontaneity is

>not causal.

>

>

>

>

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