The Disease of the Infinite

David Levine

Chapter 2 in Pathology of the Capitalist Spirit: An Essay on Greed, Hope, and Loss, 2013, pp 15-30 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Capital becomes the object of desire when what we desire is not a finite life, but a life unconstrained by limits, a potential that is never given up by becoming something particular and therefore limited, an escape from what is unique and diferent in the direction of what remains universal and without limit. Satisfaction implies acknowledging diference, and the pursuit of limitless accumulations of wealth defies both difference and the finite satisfaction linked to it. The disease of the infinite leads to attacks on others that originate in the impulse to deprive them of the satisfaction we cannot have. This makes the capitalist process the process of alienation of spirit, a process that implies the loss of human vitality through its transfer or projection onto capital.

Keywords: Private Property; Moral Standing; Human Vitality; Real Subject; Surrogate Satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-34679-7_3

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137346797_3

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