Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate of Art Research, University of Art, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Art, University of Art, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to investigate the aesthetic dimensions of Marx’s theory through the lens of Ranciére’s conception of “the sensible”. To this aim, we begin with the generic idea of the production and the alienated senses in Marx’s early writings to see how his idea is linked with the idea of “distribution of the sensible”. Then, in the light of the idea of “re-distribution of the sensible”, try to explain the political and emancipatory potential of the body in Marx’s mature critique of political economy in Capital and the Grundrisse. The paper shows how reading Marx’s theory of the senses through Ranciére’s can help in unveiling the aesthetic nature of the “mode of production”, specifically, in understanding “the mode of production” as a relation between the economic forces and the senses which, in turn, can turn into other forces. In this paper, the word “aesthetic” is used in the specific sense of sensuous perception.

Keywords

Berman, M. (1998). All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. Translated by Morad Farhadpour. Tehran: Rokhdad-e-No. [in Persian]
Chari, A. (2019). Political economy of the senses. US: Colombia University Press.
Colletti, L. (1974). from rousseau to lenin. Translated by John Merrington. New York & London: Monthly Review Press.
Eagleton, T. (2012). why Marx was right. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Eagleton, T. (2018). The ideology of the aesthetic. Translated by Majid Akhgar. Tehran: Bidgol. [in Persian]
Feenberg, A. (2014). The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukács and The Frankfurt School. London & New York: Verso Books.
Gandesha, S. & Hartle, J. (2017). Aesthetic Marx. N. Y: Bloomsbury.
Hartley, D. (2018). The aesthetics of non-objectivity. Studi di estetica journal. IV(3): 137-150.
Hegel, G. (2008). Hegel's Introductions to the Phenomenology of the Soul and Aesthetic. Translated by Mahmoud Ebadian. Tehran: Elm. [in Persian]
Hudson, M. (2020). Visualising the Empire of Capital. London & NewYork: Routledge.
Kant, I. (1990). Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Mir Shamsuddin Adib-Soltani. Tehran: AmirKabir. [In Persian]
Marx, K. (1973). Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft). UK: Penguin
Marx, K. (1988). Economics and philosophic manuscript of 1844. Translated by Martin Milligan. NY: Prometheus.
Marx, K. (1991). Theses on Feuerbach. Translated by Bagher Parham.  Kargari-e-Socialisti. http://www.nashr.de/1/marx/foyerbakh. [in Persian]
Marx, K. (1992). Marx Early writing. Translated by Rodny Livingstone & Gregor Benton. UK: Penguin.
Marx, K. (2002). Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Translated by Hasan Mortazavi. Tehran: Lahita. [in Persian]
Marx, K. Engels, F. (2014). Manifesto of the Communist Party. Translated by Shahab Borhan. MarxEngels.public-archive.net.
Postone, M. (2003). Time, labor, and social domination: A reinterpretation of Marx's critical theory. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Rancière, J. (2004). The Politics of Aesthetics. Translated by Gabriel Rockhill. NY: Continuum.
Read, J. (2019). The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx. London: Bloomsbury press.
Read, J. M. (2015). Rancière & the (Trans) formation of Perception. Colloquium of Marketplaces of Perception. Akademie Schloss Solitude.
Scarry, A. (1985). Body in Pain. UK: Oxford University Press.
Sohn-Rethel, A. (1978). Intellectual and Manual Labour: A Critique of epistemology. London: Macmillan.
Tucker, R. (1972). Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wood, A. (1993). Hegel and Marxism in Cambridge companion to Hegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press