The Digital Metaphysics of Cognitive Capitalism: Abandoning Dialectics, the North Atlantic Left Invents a Spontaneous Communism within Capitalism

Abstract

In North Atlantic left theory, the law of value “dies” because the dialectics of labor time and value, which is the ground of Marx's labor theory of value, is assumed to have lost its explanatory power in cognitive capitalism in which the time of labor is close to zero, and labor, therefore, is seen as having no central role in producing value. Value becomes immeasurable and exploitation is displaced by expropriation. These assumptions are based on an undialectical understanding of the relation of cognition and labor, in which they are regarded as binary oppositions and labor is reduced purely to “doing” as opposed to “knowing.” However, knowledge is always part of labor and “intensifies” labor according to Marx. Therefore, the same concrete labor times are translated into different abstract labor times. The abstract labor time required in immaterial production (software) is more than zero. The law of value operates as long as capitalism exists.

Keywords:

• Marxism
• autonomist Marxism
• cognitive capitalism
• dialectics
• communism

Notes on Contributors

Teresa L. Ebert is the author most recently of The Task of Cultural Critique as well as such books as Ludic Feminism and After. Her essays have appeared in such journals as Rethinking Marxism, Cultural Critique, Textual Practice, Women's Review of Books and College English. She is professor of cultural theory at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Teresa L. Ebert and Mas'ud Zavarzadeh are co-authors of Class in Culture and the forthcoming Marxism and the Work of (Post) Humanities.

Mas'ud Zavarzadeh has written on Marxist theory, contemporary critical thought and capitalism. He is the author of Seeing Films Politically, The Mythopoeic Reality and The Class Imperative. He has taught at a number of universities, including Syracuse University in New York. Teresa L. Ebert and Mas'ud Zavarzadeh are co-authors of Class in Culture and the forthcoming Marxism and the Work of (Post) Humanities.