From: ".: s0metim3s :." <s0metim3s-AT-optusnet.com.au>
Subject: AUT: RE: teleology
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:46:11 +1000


Lowe,

I'm not sure what you understand by 'eschatology';
but as far as I can tell, saying that the
multitude reveals a telos (their words) is the
announcement of an end, therefore both
eschatological and prophetic.  And, sure, the
ontology is novel in relation to marxism.  But
dispensing with dialectics for a dose of
neo-platonism isn't exactly novel in relation to
western philosophy. I'm not unfamiliar with
Negri's work, though I haven't read everything
he's written.  What I will say is that the bit
which people seem to regard as his weakest
points -- ie., the recourse to rights in
_Empire_ -- isn't a momentary aberration but the
conclusion to a series of assumptions and claims
which have been present for some time.  It's the
slippage between 'early' and 'late' Spinoza, if
you will; ie: the internalisation and diffusion of
the subject of rights as the correlate of the
internalisation etc of abstract labour.  That's an
interesting analysis; but put to better use by
Lazzarato, Virno and others I think.  But this,
Negri and Hardt claim, amounts to freedom, destiny
and a demand, again their words.  Yuk.

I'd be interested to know what there is in
_Multitudes_ that sheds any light on this, one way
or another.

Angela


: The teleology is there, but what type
: is it? Its by no means an ordinary one,
: or the old, typical. Its not in any
: sense the old eschatological teleology
: that people made of Marx's
: "prophetism". One has to be careful not
: to let their signifiers precede them
: when reading Negri. He tends to elide
: quite a bit, which means that one has
: to be familiar with the entire network
: of other statements. And what is the
: nature of his ontological project? I
: would say that both of these aspects of
: his thought are novel with respect to
: the Marxist tradition. Though I'm not
: saying they are novel in and of
: themselves, but in their application to
: this tradition and with respect to
: issues like value, to many concepts
: within the western political
: philosophical tradition... they are not
: so well established paths. I think
: (though I could be wrong), that because
: of this, people tend to want him to
: justify himself with respect to his
: difference vis-a-vis the hegemonic
: traditions.. or vis-a-vis things t
:  hat are well-established. His
: discussion of Rights for example--I've
: not read Multitudes so I've no idea
: what or if he says more about it
: there--is a consideration outside
: "representation". One could read the
: word "right" and assume he's talking
: about the same thing a Rawls might talk
: about. When you said it presuposses
: recognition, I'm not quite sure what
: you means but if you meant it in a
: sense that presupposes mediation, that
: wouldn't be consistent.




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