Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

As an economist and as a historian, Karl Marx made egregious mistakes. Yet, as a philosopher of consciousness, indeed, as a social psychologist, he provided a perspective that is of central importance today. In this paper, I show that this aspect of his work can help us see key socio-psychological features inherent to the emerging forms of postindustrial capitalism. All liberals, from Adam Smith to Mario Vargas Llosa, have maintained that capitalism can fulfill a humanistic and humanizing role. This is a plausible argument that we ought to deliberately consider, rather than dogmatically reject or accept. I argue that capitalism can fulfill such a role – but only to the extent to which necessary socio-psychological conditions exist, including, in particular, reflective capacities in the population. Capacities that, in an era when the term post-truth has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, are threatened by developments in the socioeconomic system itself. If these collective abilities and habits of thought cannot fulfill their required social role, “digital capitalism” could become the system that Marx warned us about: a dehumanizing underworld and a threat to the life-system itself. As a corollary of this argument, I finally suggest that the “impossible” dialogue between these historically opposed perspectives, economic liberalism and Marxism, is possible and would indeed be one the most profitable exchanges within the social and human sciences today.