Books by Gabriele Schimmenti
Edited Books by Gabriele Schimmenti
In questo celebre lavoro Alfred Sohn-Rethel presenta i risultati di una ricerca che ha occupato t... more In questo celebre lavoro Alfred Sohn-Rethel presenta i risultati di una ricerca che ha occupato tutta la sua vita. Il problema che egli discute è quello del rapporto tra struttura e sovrastruttura, più precisamente tra "essere" e "coscienza". Egli è convinto che sia la particolare situazione del lavoro intellettuale rispetto a quello manuale a caratterizzare i modi della coscienza e della conoscenza scientifica. L'origine delle categorie del pensiero occidentale viene ricondotta da Sohn-Rethel all'imporsi dell'astrazione dello scambio come nesso sociale portante, da cui discende la separazione sociale tra lavoro intellettuale e lavoro manuale. In questo modo vengono anche delineate le premesse per il superamento di tale divisione, condizione imprescindibile per l'edificazione di una società senza classi. Alfred Sohn-Rethel (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1899-Brema, 1990) è stato un economista, sociologo ed epistemologo tedesco. Nei suoi scritti ha indagato a lungo il rapporto tra forme di conoscenza e modo di produzione capitalistico. Tra le sue opere pubblicate in italiano, oltre a Lavoro intellettuale e lavoro manuale, si ricordano Economia e struttura di classe del fascismo tedesco e Il denaro. L'apriori in contanti.
Quarta di copertina: In questo testo giovanile del 1829 con il quale vinse il Premio Reale Prussi... more Quarta di copertina: In questo testo giovanile del 1829 con il quale vinse il Premio Reale Prussiano di filosofia, Bruno Bauer si interroga sul significato dell’arte e sul rapporto di questa con la religione e la filosofia, mediante un confronto serrato con la "Critica del Giudizio" di Kant e con il pensiero di Hegel, il quale, in qualità di commissario del premio, giudicò positivamente lo scritto. Temi quali l’emancipazione dell’autocoscienza attraverso la lotta, oppure la concezione della religione in quanto alienazione, sono presagiti in questo scritto, sebbene l’inflessione politica del pensiero di Bauer giunga a maturazione solo successivamente, a seguito dell’intensificazione degli antagonismi sociali nel Vormärz. La squillante difesa dell’universalità, mantenuta vigorosamente fin dopo le sconfitte del 1848, è una chiamata alla libertà e alla realizzazione della ragione. L’unità di pensiero ed essere, di ragione e oggettività, è un processo e una meta che si realizza mediante avversità e contestazione. Come Bauer dichiara già nel suo manoscritto, l’arte è il suo araldo.
Edited Journal Issues by Gabriele Schimmenti
Book chapters by Gabriele Schimmenti
Marx and the Sociality of Hieroglyphics. From Wittgenstein to Marx
F. Sulpizio, G. Schimmenti, M. De Iaco (eds.), Wittgenstein and Marx. Marx and Wittgenstein, Peter Lang, Bern, 2021
In this article, I deal with Marx’s concept of “social hieroglyphic”. I aim at showing how Marx’s... more In this article, I deal with Marx’s concept of “social hieroglyphic”. I aim at showing how Marx’s metaphor implies a deep criticism of the capitalistic mode of production and of its main form of knowledge, i.e. political economy. In the first step, I will discuss some aspects of Marx’s concept of value form (Wertform) in Capital, highlighting the systematic context of his reference to the hieroglyphics. In a second step, I will try to reconstruct some sources of his concept of hieroglyphics, taking into account his so-called "Bonner Hefte" and his notes on W. H. Prescott’s "History of the Conquest of Mexico". The analysis will show some commonalities between Wittgenstein’s reflections in "Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough" and Marx’s concept of fetishism.
in G. Sgro' e I. Viparelli, Karl Marx (1818-2018): eredità e prospettive, La Città del Sole, Napoli 2020, pp. 17-35
In copertina: Foto dell'esposizione di statue di Marx (100 x 35 x 21 cm) realizzate dallo scultor... more In copertina: Foto dell'esposizione di statue di Marx (100 x 35 x 21 cm) realizzate dallo scultore Ottmar Hörl (Treviri, marzo-maggio 2013).
F. Dorsch, D.-E. Ratiu (eds. by), “Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics ”, Vol. 8, The European Society for Aesthetics, Fribourg , 2016
Although the young Karl Marx does not develop a coherent aesthetic theory, my paper seeks to high... more Although the young Karl Marx does not develop a coherent aesthetic theory, my paper seeks to highlight the influence of the Hegelian “end of art” theory within some of his early writings—namely, in the drafts of his dissertation. I will proceed with the following steps: In the first section I will discuss a) the categories of “end of art” and “future of art,” providing b) a short sketch of the differences between the Hegelian and Left Hegelian theories. In the second section I will c) analyze the distinctive features of the young Marx’s considerations of art. I will show how his aesthetic conceptualization depends, in some respects, on the Hegelian conception, which argues that Greek beauty cannot return in modernity. I also aim to show some differences between Marx’s and Left Hegelians’ theory of art.
G. Schimmenti, Bruno Bauer e il (dis)seppellimento dell’arte. Riflessioni sulla tesi della dissoluzione della religione nell’arte, in B. Bauer, "Sui principi del bello", D. Moggach e G. Schimmenti (a cura di), Palermo University Press, Palermo 2018, pp. 65-83
Talks (after selection) by Gabriele Schimmenti
Die ontologischen Voraussetzungen und das Problem des Wertes in dem Roman Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins Milan Kunderas
A Hegelian Logical Interpretation of Marx’s Dissertation
32nd International Hegel Congress, Tampere, Finnland, 5-8 June 2018 (special section on Hegel and Marx), 2018
Bruno Bauer e il (dis)seppellimento dell’arte. Riflessioni sulla tesi del “dissolvimento della religione nell’arte”
Ischia International Festival of Philosophy, 3rd edition, Ischia (Italy), 23 September – 01 October 2017, 2017
In the Beginning was the Art. Marginalia on the Aesthetics of Marx's Theory of Fetishism
In this contribution, I aim at challenging some central aspects of Marx’s concept of fetishism, w... more In this contribution, I aim at challenging some central aspects of Marx’s concept of fetishism, which has usually been interpreted by stressing its connections with religious alienation (religious reading = RR). My thesis is that it is worth conceiving Marx’s theory of fetishism from an aesthetic perspective, which should be considered complementary to the first (aesthetic reading = AR). I will discuss my proposal following 2 steps. In the first I thoroughly deal with the value-form (Wertform) in the first chapter of the first volume of Capital. I will try to show the theoretical advantage we could obtain adopting the AR I’m proposing. It consists in considering the concept of fetishism not only as an epistemological critique, id est as a critique of the beliefs or cognitions of social actors, but also as an ontological critique of the actions of those actors and, hence, of the reality they constitute in their praxis. In the second step of my talk, I will try to show some biographical and theoretical elements surrounding the young Marx that in my opinion allow us to look at the concept of fetishism from an aesthetic perspective by investigating the aesthetic prelude of Marx’s reflection on fetishism. Therefore, I will analyze the context and some of the journal articles Marx wrote in 1842 and 1843 while he was studying the text of Charles De Brosses on fetishism, from which he borrowed, as it were, that concept.
Journal Articles by Gabriele Schimmenti
My article aims to problematize the idea of a break between Marx and anthropologism, as proposed ... more My article aims to problematize the idea of a break between Marx and anthropologism, as proposed by Michael Heinrich in his important text Die Wissenschaft vom Wert. I will deal with Heinrich's argument that Marx, from 1845 onward, developed a new non-anthropological and non-essentialist conception. Instead, I will tentatively suggest that while Marx's position is nonessentialist, it remains 'anthropological' in a certain sense.
The Young Hegelians developed at least three different critiques of Hegel’s aesthetics. The first... more The Young Hegelians developed at least three different critiques of Hegel’s aesthetics. The first critique begins with Feuerbach’s writings in the 1841–1843 and emphasizes the sensuous origin and the finiteness of art. The second is focused primarily on the role of art in history and the category of the comedy. In his Die historische Komödie in unserer Zeit (1843), Arnold Ruge considers Hegel unable to recognize the emancipatory role of the comedy. The third developed by Bruno Bauer in his Posaune des jüngsten Gericht über Hegel den Atheisten und Antichristen (1841) and in Hegel’s Lehre von Religion und Kunst aus Standpunkt des Glaubens aus beurteilt (1842) centres upon Hegel’s views on aesthetics and modernity. This article is to examine these critiques and explain why they are in fact not able to overcome Hegel’s aesthetics. As a matter of fact, Hegel did not reject the sensuous origin of art and its finiteness. Furthermore, he did acknowledge comedy’s crucial role, and saw romantic art as the phase in which beauty loses its prominence in favour of not-beauty and humour. Finally, Bauer criticized the relationship between religion and art in the absolute spirit.
Marx’s Dissertation in Light of the Value-Form
in Historical Materialism, 31.4 (2023), 206-230, 2023
My article investigates Marx’s dissertation from the perspective of the categories of Hegelian lo... more My article investigates Marx’s dissertation from the perspective of the categories of Hegelian logic employed in the writings on the critique of political economy and, in particular, in the analysis of the value-form (Wertform) in Capital. The aim of my contribution is to show how Marx’s early writing is not intended as a mere ‘exercice encore scolaire’ (Althusser), but as the first documented confrontation with Hegel’s logic. Marx’s early writing displays a moment of elaboration and acquisition of Hegel’s method. I argue that the Epicurean atom represents a developing contradiction, and that the dissertation follows a precise Darstellung, which extends from the metaphysi- cal and physical principle to the abstract subjectivity of Epicurean atomism.
Bruno Bauer's critical theory of tragedy. The aesthetics of collision
in Critique. Journal of Socialist Theory, Vol. 50, No. 1, 221–232, 2022
The aim of my article is to retrace Bruno Bauer’s critical theory of tragedy in his The Trumpet o... more The aim of my article is to retrace Bruno Bauer’s critical theory of tragedy in his The Trumpet of the Last Judgement against Hegel, the Atheist and the Antichrist (1841), Hegel’s Doctrine of Religion and Art (1842), and in his political writings of the same period. I will show how Bauer’s critical theory of tragedy represents a profound politicization of Hegel’s own conception of tragic action. Bauer modifies Hegel’s theory in two relevant aspects. Firstly, he gives a political modern contour to the tragic characters. Unlike Hegel, they are not seen as unaware of their role in ethical conflict; on the contrary, they recognize their actions as colliding with their corresponding opposite ethical power. To show Bauer’s emendation, I will deal with his critique of Hegel’s famous reading of Sophocles’ Antigone, showing to what extent the Greek heroine represents for Bauer himself the principle of self-liberation of universal self-consciousness. Secondly, according to Bauer, tragedy should not be exiled in the ancient world (the Greeks) or be weakened in modern drama, as in Hegel’s aesthetics. Instead, tragedy is a crucial experience of modern critical subjectivities in their struggle to overcome the principle of exclusion, incorporated by the (Christian) State.
Postmodern subjectivity has been defined as a "desert of mirrors" and philosophy played a crucial... more Postmodern subjectivity has been defined as a "desert of mirrors" and philosophy played a crucial role in this definition, criticizing the metaphor of the mirror as a valid image for the theory of knowledge and, in general, for philosophy. The aim of my paper is to show how the metaphor of the mirror could be saved from this philosophical ban. Firstly, I will deal with the threefold definition of the mirror in the history of philosophy and culture. Secondly, I will argue that it is possible to reassess the metaphor of the mirror considering two interrelated concepts, expression and change, within the aesthetic reflection theory (Widerspiegelungstheorie).
My article intends to retrace and discuss the Italian translation of Marx’s Comments on James Mil... more My article intends to retrace and discuss the Italian translation of Marx’s Comments on James Mill, Élémens D’économie Politique, included within the third volume of the Italian Marx-Engels Opere Complete, edited by Nicolao Merker in 1976 and published by Editori Riuniti. This translation gains a certain relevance in the history of the Italian translations of Marx’s writings, since it integrated and contrasted some concurrent translations and set a new fruitful terminological standard in the Italian Opere complete. Nevertheless, I will examine also its limits and discuss some alternative translations, arguing for a new edition on the basis of the new German historical-critical edition of Marx and Engels (MEGA2). Keywords: Alienation, Comments on James Mill, Dellavolpismo, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Italian Marxism, MEGA2.
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Books by Gabriele Schimmenti
Edited Books by Gabriele Schimmenti
Edited Journal Issues by Gabriele Schimmenti
Book chapters by Gabriele Schimmenti
Talks (after selection) by Gabriele Schimmenti
Journal Articles by Gabriele Schimmenti