The Debt of the Living: Ascesis and Capitalism

Elettra Stimilli

Published by SUNY Press 2016

The Debt of the Living

Ascesis and Capitalism

Elettra Stimilli
Translated by: Arianna Bove
Preface by: Roberto Esposito

In the series SUNY series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438464169

Overview
Contents

About this book

An analysis of theological and philosophical understandings of debt and its role in contemporary capitalism.

Author / Editor information

Elettra Stimilli is research fellow of theoretical philosophy at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. Arianna Bove is the translator of many books, including Factory of Strategy: Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin, by Antonio Negri.

Reviews

"The Debt of the Living offers its readers a careful reading of a wide selection of important thinkers, alongside a thorough analysis of what it means to be an indebted human subject. Raising a series of urgent questions, this book makes a valuable contribution to the debates surrounding our current condition." — Journal of Italian Philosophy

"…Stimilli makes an important contribution to the theological genealogy of the functioning of neoliberalism and our current debt economy. It should be read widely, by those concerned with such matters." — Religious Theory

"Globalization is on everyone's lips these days but little or no attention has been paid to its effects on the individual human being. Elettra Stimilli's book is a major step towards filling this lack. Drawing on, and creatively extending, the work of Foucault, Agamben, Benjamin, and a wide range of other thinkers, she argues that one can no longer understand the source of inequality in sacrifice, that is in the refusal to satisfy desire. Her thought-provoking conclusion is that the modern increase in individual psychopathologies is consequent to the neoliberal transformation of the economy and thus of governmentality. A strikingly creative and new voice." — Tracy B. Strong, author of Politics without Vision: Thinking without a Banister in the Twentieth Century

"Stimilli's Debt of the Living offers invaluable insights into the connections between the domination of global technocapitalism and the subjective strategies of conformity and resistance. Through a series of illuminating readings of Nietzsche, Weber, Harnack, Benjamin, and Heidegger it provides the ground plan for a radical political theology that insists on the renewed subversive potential of transcendence." — Howard Caygill, author of Kafka: In Light of the Accident

"Debt is a burning issue today. Against the background of contemporary debates on neoliberalism and biopolitics, The Debt of the Living takes us on a breathtaking tour to understand the constitutive entanglement of capitalism and debt as well as of debt and guilt. Elettra Stimilli's genealogical investigation of Christian asceticism sheds light on the emergence of a matrix of economic power that continues to haunt our present. And helps us to contest it." — Sandro Mezzadra, coauthor of Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor

"…unreservedly recommended." — Midwest Book Review

Topics

Front Matter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword to the English Translation Roberto Esposito Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface to the English Translation Elettra Stimilli Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
The End in Itself of the Economic Enterprise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Oikonomía and Asceticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
The Theological Construction of the Government of the World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Voluntary Poverty on the Market Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Capitalism as Religion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
A Philosophical Critique of Asceticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
The Spirit of Capitalism and Forms of Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: SUNY Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 216
Illustrations
- Other: Total Illustrations: 0
Keywords: Business and Economics : Economy and Society; Religion and Spirituality : Theology; Philosophy : Continental Philosophy; Politics and Law : Political Economy; Philosophy : Philosophy

eBook

Published: December 20, 2016
ISBN: 9781438464169