Krisis is an anti-political German political magazine and discussion group (Krisis-Gruppe, or Crisis Group) formed in 1986 as a "theoretical forum for a radical critique of capitalist society." Its members (before split) includes Robert Kurz, Roswitha Scholz, Nobert Trenkle, Ernst Lohoff, Achim Bellgart and Franz Schandl. [1] [2]
The Krisis Group was founded in 1986 in Nuremberg, by German left-wing radical intellectuals and activists influenced by the work of Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno. Its leading members included Robert Kurz, Roswitha Scholz, Ernst Lohoff, Norbert Trenkle and Claus-Peter Ortlieb. The group published the theoretical journal Krisis : Contribution to a Critique of Commodity Society, and the review Marxist Critique. The Krisis Group also organized seminars and debates, and published articles in different European and South American reviews. [3] [4] [5]
In its magazine, [1] the group proposes a critique of contemporary capitalist society based on a fundamental reinterpretation of Marx's analysis of labor, the commodity, value, and money in Das Kapital .
Krisis argues that a distinction exists between an « exoteric » and « esoteric » analysis of capitalism in Marx’s writings. Marx’s "exoteric" analysis (associated with his early works) is a critique of capitalism from the point of view of labor or the working-class, a point of view which leads inevitably to an emphasis on the struggle between capitalists and workers, and redistribution of wealth, as the aim of class struggle. Marx’s "esoteric" analysis of capitalism, on the other hand, is a critique of the historically specific form that work and wealth assume in capitalism – abstract labor and value. Moreover, it identifies domination in capitalism with these historically determinant forms, rather than with the classes or individuals who appropriate surplus labor and wealth from the laboring classes. [6] [7]
In the Manifesto Against Work (translated to english as manifesto against labour due to the original german only using the word arbeit), [8] The manifesto argues against the notion of class struggle as the motor of history. According to Krisis, there is no class-subject, and the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is not a struggle between a revolutionary class and its oppressor, but rather a struggle between two opposed interests that are integral to contemporary society, and form a single "work camp". Contrary to the given notion in modernity, Krisis, then asserts that the struggle against capital is not the struggle for the liberation of work, but rather a struggle for liberation from work.
In 2004 the Krisis Group split, and the members Robert Kurz and Roswitha Scholz together with several members of the editorial staff formed the journal Exit! group. According to them, the split was the result of a putsch by a minority of the editorial staff of Krisis. [9]
Moishe Postone was a Canadian historian and social theorist. He was a professor of history at the University of Chicago, where he was part of the Committee on Jewish Studies.
Criticism of capitalism is a critique of political economy that involves the rejection of, or dissatisfaction with the economic system of capitalism and its outcomes. Criticisms typically range from expressing disagreement with particular aspects or outcomes of capitalism to rejecting the principles of the capitalist system in its entirety. Criticism of capitalism is generally a left-wing to far-left stance on political economy.
Anselm Jappe is a German professor of philosophy. Jappe currently resides in France. Jappe has authored several works in German, French, and Italian. Jappe has lectured at several institutions in within higher education.
Marxian class theory asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position. A class is those who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests, and engage in collective action which advances those interests. Within Marxian class theory, the structure of the production process forms the basis of class construction.
Critique of political economy or simply the first critique of economy is a form of social critique that rejects the conventional ways of distributing resources. The critique also rejects what its advocates believe are unrealistic axioms, faulty historical assumptions, and taking conventional economic mechanisms as a given or as transhistorical. The critique asserts the conventional economy is merely one of many types of historically specific ways to distribute resources, which emerged along with modernity.
Throughout modern history, a variety of perspectives on capitalism have evolved based on different schools of thought.
Robert Kurz was a German philosopher, social critic, journalist and editor of the journal Exit! He was one of Germany's most prominent theorists of value criticism.
The Black Book of Capitalism is a book written by German philosopher and critical-theorist Robert Kurz and published in 1999. It critically examines the history and purported slow collapse of capitalism. It is considered one of the main work of the author associated with value criticism and sparked a debate about the description of the origins of capitalism, its contemporary diagnosis, and the consequences of criticizing the prevailing conditions. The book has, as of 2023, not yet been translated into other languages from the original German.
In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production is a specific combination of the:
Exploitation is a concept defined as, in its broadest sense, one agent taking unfair advantage of another agent. When applying this to labour it denotes an unjust social relationship based on an asymmetry of power or unequal exchange of value between workers and their employers. When speaking about exploitation, there is a direct affiliation with consumption in social theory and traditionally this would label exploitation as unfairly taking advantage of another person because of their vulnerable position, giving the exploiter the power.
In Karl Marx's critique of political economy and subsequent Marxian analyses, the capitalist mode of production refers to the systems of organizing production and distribution within capitalist societies. Private money-making in various forms preceded the development of the capitalist mode of production as such. The capitalist mode of production proper, based on wage-labour and private ownership of the means of production and on industrial technology, began to grow rapidly in Western Europe from the Industrial Revolution, later extending to most of the world.
Marxism was introduced by Karl Marx. Most Marxist critics who were writing in what could chronologically be specified as the early period of Marxist literary criticism, subscribed to what has come to be called "vulgar Marxism." In this thinking of the structure of societies, literary texts are one register of the superstructure, which is determined by the economic base of any given society. Therefore, literary texts are a reflection of the economic base rather than "the social institutions from which they originate" for all social institutions, or more precisely human–social relationships, are in the final analysis determined by the economic base.
Value criticism is a social theory which draws its foundation from the Marxian tradition and criticizes the contemporary mode of production. Value criticism was developed partly by critical readings of the traditions of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Prominent adherents of value criticism include Robert Kurz, Moishe Postone and Jean-Marie Vincent.
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, also known as Capital, is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy and critique of political economy written by Karl Marx, published as three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his life's work, the text contains Marx's analysis of capitalism, to which he sought to apply his theory of historical materialism "to lay bare the economic laws of modern society", following from classical political economists such as Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. The text's second and third volumes were completed from Marx's notes after his death and published by his colleague Friedrich Engels. Das Kapital is the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950.
Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian economists tend to accept the concept of the economy prima facie. Marxian economics comprises several different theories and includes multiple schools of thought, which are sometimes opposed to each other; in many cases Marxian analysis is used to complement, or to supplement, other economic approaches. Because one does not necessarily have to be politically Marxist to be economically Marxian, the two adjectives coexist in usage, rather than being synonymous: They share a semantic field, while also allowing both connotative and denotative differences.
The proletariat is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power. A member of such a class is a proletarian or a proletaire. Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class - forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production, which belong to the class of business owners, the bourgeoisie.
Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborator, Friedrich Engels, the ultimate cause and moving power of historical events are to be found in the economic development of society and the social and political upheavals wrought by changes to the mode of production.
Claus Peter Ortlieb, born 1 May 1947 in Reinbek, died on 15 September 2019, was a German mathematician (PhD), critic of work, critic of political economy, and a critic of contemporary science, especially regarding its use of mathematics. As well as an editor for the journal EXIT!.
EXIT! is a German journal of social criticism, and discussion group formed in 2004. The journal is published by the publishing house Zu Klampen Verlag. The journal has a value-critical(German:Wertkritik) approach, both to the contemporary mode of production, and its critique of traditional marxism, as well as their critique of political economy.
Roswitha Scholz, born in Germany in 1959, is a philosopher and a social theorist. She works as a editor for EXIT! journal, which she co-founded in 2004, after participating in the Krisis group and magazine.