From Closed Need to Infinite Greed: Marx’s Drive Theory

Type of content
Journal Article
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2017
Authors
Johnston, Adrian
Abstract

Repeating Freudo-Marxism: Drives Between Historical Materialism and Psychoanalysis The title of my piece obviously makes reference to Alexandre Koyré’s 1957 book From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe. Therein, Koyré unfurls a narrative in which modern science is born in and through Galileo Galilei’s insistence that the great book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.1 On the Koyréan account, the Galilean mathematization of all things natural brings about, as one of its several momentous consequences, a leap “from the closed world to the infinite universe” precisely by rupturing the finite sphere of the qualitative cosmos and replacing it with the centerless expanse of a quantitative limitlessness. Along with the capitalism and Protestantism arising in the sixteenth century, the natural science originating in the early seventeenth century is a foundational component and key catalyst of modernity as such. Hence, by Koyré’s lights, the historical transition from the pre-modern to the modern involves the shift designated by his influential book’s title.

Description
Citation
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.