Description
Book SynopsisIn his latest book, the influential critic Brian Massumi offers a new theory of political economy that demonstrates how emotional, affective and nonconscious decisions work together with rational self-interest in the shaping of neoliberalism. Massumi’s analysis shows the potential for a new anti-capitalist politics.
Trade Review“Behavioral economists who study the psychology of decision making should engage this study of potential, virtual, and kinetic emotions, given that emotions are what move people to action. Going beyond Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's
Commonwealth and Timothy Wilson’s
Strangers to Ourselves, this is a book for those interested in cultural theory. … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.” -- K. Tölölyan * Choice *
“... powerful and convincing in its theoretically innovative, productive intertwining of political philosophy, cognitive psychology and Luhmann’s systems theory.” -- Hannah Richter * Constructivist Foundations *
"Massumi’s interventions regarding affect, neoliberalism, and politics are undoubtedly original, and provocative. The book pierces to the heart of the neoliberalism’s most basic premises about rationality, self-interest, and economic behavior." -- Anita Chari * Theory & Event *
Table of Contents1. The Inmost End 1 The Market in Wonderland 2 System Distrust 6 Collapse of the Affective Wave Packet 10 2. A Doing Done through Me 19 Deliberation without Attention 21 Jamming Rational Choice 24 The Primes of Life 26 Toward a Politics of Dividualism 32 Double Involuntary / Autonomy of Decision 36 Fielding the Event 43 Tribunals of Reason 48 Finessing the Event 53 3. Beyond Self-Interest 57 Your Life or My Little Finger? 58 Contiguity, Most Distant 65 The Argument from Intensity 68 The Other Sign of Passion 73 A Freedom of the Event 79 The Flashpoint of Sympathy 84 Toward an Anticapitalist Art of the Event 93 Supplements I. The Affective Tasks of Reason 97 II. Keywords for Affect 103 Notes 113 Works Cited 121 Index 127
