{"id":9564,"date":"2012-10-14T10:28:55","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T15:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=9564"},"modified":"2012-11-08T11:48:07","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T16:48:07","slug":"concrete-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2012\/10\/14\/concrete-universal\/","title":{"rendered":"concrete universal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crucial feature to bear in mind here is how concrete universality<\/span> is not true concrete universality<\/span> without including in itself the subjective position of its reader-interpreter as the particular and contingent point from which the universality is perceived.<\/span> 359<\/p>\n

Marx\u2019s example is that of labor: only in capitalism, in which I exchange my labor power for money as the universal commodity, do I relate to my specific profession as one contingent particular form of employment; only here does the abstract notion of work become a social fact, in contrast to medieval societies in which the laborer does not choose his field of work as a profession, since he is directly \u201cborn\u201d into it. (The same goes for Freud and his discovery of the universal function of the Oedipus complex.) In other words, the very gap between a universal notion and its particular historical form appears only in a certain historical epoch. What this means is that we truly pass from abstract to concrete universality<\/span> only when the knowing subject loses its external position and itself becomes caught up in the movement of its content\u2015only in this way does the universality of the object of cognition lose its abstract character and enter into the movement of its particular content.<\/span> 360<\/p>\n

How and under what specific historical conditions does abstract Universality itself become a \u201cfact of (social) life\u201d?<\/span> Under what conditions do individuals experience themselves as subjects of universal human rights? This is the point of Marx\u2019s analysis of commodity fetishism: in a society in which commodity exchange predominates, individuals in their daily lives relate to themselves, as well as to the objects they encounter, as contingent embodiments of abstract and universal notions.<\/span> What I am, in terms of my concrete social or cultural background, is experienced as contingent, since what ultimately defines me is the abstract universal capacity to think and\/or to work. Any object that can satisfy my desire is experienced as contingent, since my desire is conceived as an abstract formal capacity, indifferent towards the multitude of particular objects that may satisfy it, but never fully do.\u00a0 360<\/p>\n

The crucial point here is that, again, in the specific social conditions of commodity exchange within a global market economy, \u201cabstraction\u201d becomes a direct feature of actual social life. It has an impact on the way individuals behave and relate to their fate and to their social surroundings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marx shares Hegel\u2019s insight into how Universality becomes \u201cfor itself\u201d only insofar as individuals no longer fully identify the kernel of their being with their particular social situation: they experience themselves as forever \u201cout of joint\u201d with regard to this situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, in a given social structure, Universality becomes \u201cfor itself\u201d only in those individuals who lack a proper place in it. The mode of appearance of an abstract Universality, its entering into actual existence, thus produces violence, disrupting the former organic equilibrium.<\/span> 361<\/p>\n

Actual universality is not the \u201cdeep\u201d feeling that different cultures ultimately share the same basic values, etc.;<\/span> actual universality \u201cappears\u201d (actualizes itself) as the experience of negativity<\/span>, of the inadequacy-to-itself, of a particular identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcrete universality\u201d does not concern the relationship of a particular to the wider Whole, the way it relates to others and to its context, but rather the way it relates to itself, the way its very particular identity is split from within.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, a universality arises \u201cfor itself\u201d only through or at the site of a thwarted particularity<\/em>.<\/strong> Universality inscribes itself into a particular identity as its inability to fully become itself: I am a universal subject insofar as I cannot realize myself in my particular identity\u2015this is why the modern universal subject is by definition \u201cout of joint,\u201d lacking its proper place in the social edifice.<\/span> 362<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The crucial feature to bear in mind here is how concrete universality is not true concrete universality without including in itself the subjective position of its reader-interpreter as the particular and contingent point from which the universality is perceived. 359 Marx\u2019s example is that of labor: only in capitalism, in which I exchange my labor … Continue reading “concrete universal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,20],"tags":[116,109],"class_list":["post-9564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concrete_universal","category-zizek","tag-ltn","tag-whoa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9564"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9572,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9564\/revisions\/9572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}