{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","title":"Critical Theory of Communication New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781911534044","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","id":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","uuid":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","title":"Critical Theory of Communication New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet","normalized_title":"criticaltheoryofcommunicationnewreadingsoflukácsadornomarcusehonnethandhabermasintheageoftheinternet","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781911534044","isbns":["9781911534044","9781911534051","9781911534068","9781911534075"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":236,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Critical%20Theory%20of%20Communication%20New%20Readings%20of%20Luk%C3%A1cs%2C%20Adorno%2C%20Marcuse%2C%20Honneth%20and%20Habermas%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20the%20Internet","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/search"},"page":{"printed_page":19,"pdf_page":23,"physical_index":23,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"73dad71d958b8effa2ca49eca9de4149a06063a88b0a86704333d8716d68138d"},"chapter":"C H R I S T I A N F U C H S CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION","content":"Bonefeld based on these insights criticises certain Marxist approaches (such as Althusser and Balibar’s theory) that assume that capitalism is an expression of some general trans-historical economic laws. ‘In sum, instead of thinking out of society, worldview Marxism analyses capitalist society to discover the general economic laws and then conceives of capitalist society as a manifestation of those same general economic laws that its analysis of capitalism established (35). In contrast to worldview Marxism, Marx would characterise ‘his “materialist method” as a critique of existent social relations, not from the standpoint of some abstractly conceived materiality of labour, but from within their own conceptuality’ (36).\n\n1.2.12. Abstract and Concrete Categories in Critical Theory\n\nSuch a critique certainly is important in respect to orthodox forms of Marxism that celebrate toil and wage-labour under socialist conditions and imitate Protestant labour ethics. Bonefeld leaves open the question whether there are any categories in Marx that are not just specific for capitalism, but also for other types of society or society in general. One gets the impression that Bonefeld tends to see any such assumption as automatically reified thought that denies the sociality of the critique of the political economy’s categories. Bonefeld (2014, 4) argues that especially the so-called ‘new reading of Marx’ approach that goes back to the works of Hans-Georg Backhaus and Helmut Reichelt, ‘renounced the classical argument about trans-historically valid economic laws of development and in its stead, conceptualized the economic appearance of society as the necessary manifestation of definite social relations’.\n\nMarx’s (1857/1858, 471–479) thoughts on the ‘Forms which precede capitalist production’ in the Grundrisse show that surplus-labour, alienation and the appropriation of the surplus product are also features of pre-capitalist societies. Value is in contrast specific for capitalism: ‘The aim of this work is not the creation of value – although they may do surplus labour in order to obtain alien, i.e. surplus products in exchange – rather, its aim is sustenance of the individual proprietor and of his family, as well as of the total community’ (Marx 1857/1858, 471–472). Some categories in Marx’s works are characteristic for all class-based societies.\n\nMarx also uses categories such as the Gattungswesen (species-being), by which he characterises features of all societies. This does not mean that he thereby assumes the existence of natural laws in society that take place outside of human’s social relations and are transhistorical. Fundamental social features of society are those social relations that humans have to enter, in order for the human being and social systems to exist. They do not exist outside of history, but are concrete, recurrent social relations in and through which history is made. Such necessary social relations include for example social production, communication, social relations of production, reproduction, a certain degree of co-operation, consumption, the social use of means of production, etc. It is in contrast a reification of capitalism to assume that value, abstract labour, capital, money, exchange, the commodity, the division of labour or class are fundamental social features of society. Communication is necessary for all societies. One cannot not communicate in a social situation. Even if you do not say anything in a specific situation, then your silence also communicates something to others. Social relations are organised in and through communication. In classbased societies, communication takes on specific forms and has a necessary organising role of social relations that are class relations. In capitalism, communication in class relations is then oriented on the capital-labour relation.\n\nIntroduction: Critical Theory of Communication\n\n19","previous_page":18,"next_page":20}