The politics of the metaphysical imagination. Critiquing transnational corporate power via Plato’s cave

Authors

  • Paul G. Tyson <div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="section" style="background-color: rgb(100.000000%, 100.000000%, 100.000000%);"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Centre of Theology and Philosophy - University of Nottingham </span></p> </div> </div> </div> </div>

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7413/22818138051

Keywords:

Plato, metaphysics, post-political power, neoliberalism, moral realism, socio-political imagination

Abstract

Plato’s analogy of the cave evokes a complex picture of the way cultural power is imaginatively constructed in order to maintain prevailing norms and stratifications, via the use of technologies of collective belief manipulation. To Plato, collective imagination is central to the modes of spiritual enslavement which embed us in morally defective structures of power.
This paper will argue, along Plato’s metaphysical trajectory, that without the positing of moral truth, critique is self-defeating and every type of power devolves towards mute violence in support of the interests of the strong at the expense of the weak. Following Plato’s trajectory, this paper will seek to morally critique the post-political advance of transnational corporate power, drawing out both the manipulative and immoral technologies of collective imagination formation which underpins this trend, and the role of metaphysical imagination as a still viable path towards the moral reform of power.

References

Bauman, Z. (1998) Globalization. Cambridge: Polity.
Berger, P, L. and Luckmann, T. (1966) The Social Construction of Reality. New York: Random House.
Confucius. (1997) Analects of Confucius. Trans. Leys, S. London: Norton.
Das, S. (2011) Extreme Money. USA: FT Press.
Desmond, W. (2012) The Intimate Strangeness of Being. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press.
Ellul, J. (1973) Propaganda. New York: Random House.
Ellul, J. (1973) The Technological Society. New York: Random House.
Friedman, M. & R. (1980) Free to Choose. New York: HBJ.
Gadamer, H-G. (1983) Dialogue and Dialectic. New Haven: Yale University Press. Galbraith, J. K. (1989) A History of Economics. London: Penguin.
Galbraith, J. K. (1994) A Short History of Financial Euphoria. London: Penguin.
Galbraith, J. K. (1996) The Good Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
George, S. (2015) Shadow Sovereigns. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gerson, L. P. (2009) Ancient Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gleckman, H. (2012) The unique design of the GRI. www.umb.edu/editor_uploads/gri_uploads/The_Unique_Design_of_GRI.pdf
Grondin, J. (2003) Hans-Georg Gadamer. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Guardini, R. (1998) The End of the Modern World. Delaware: ISI Books.
Hamilton, C. (2005) Affluenza. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Hauser, M. (2013) The Twilight if Liberal Democracy: A Symptomatic Reading of Depoliticization. Décalages Vol 1: Iss 3, Article 4.
http://scholar.oxy.edu/vol1/iss3/4
Hauser, M. (2015) Europe in a labyrinth and the material power of ideas. Open Democracy, 25 March 2015, www.opendemocracy.net/michael-hauser/europe-in-labyrinth-and- material-power-of-ideas
Hil, R. (2012) Whackademia. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing.
Howland, J. (2004) The Republic. Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books.
Kierkegaard, S. (1992) Concluding Unscientific Postscript. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (1998) The Moment and Late Writings. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Kierkegaard, S, (2010) The Present Age. New York: Harper.
Latour, B. (2004) Why has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry, 30 (Winter), 225–48.
Löwith, K. (1998) Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism. New York: Colombia University Press.
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1967) The Communist Manifesto. London: Penguin.
Milbank, J. (2006) Theology and Social Theory. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Pabst, A. (2012) Metaphysics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Plato. (1997) Complete Works, (ed.) Cooper, J.M. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
Pusey, M. (2003). The Experience of Middle Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schindler, D. C. (2008) Plato’s Critique of Impure Reason. Washington DC: Catholic University
of America.
Soros, G. (1998) The Crisis of Global Capitalism. New York: Public Affairs US.
Stiglitz, J. (2002) Globalization and its discontents. London: Penguin.
Tyson, P. (2015) The Siren Song of Financial Realism. Open Democracy, 11 August 2015, www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/paul-tyson/siren-song-of-financial-realism Varoufakis, Y. (2015) How I became an erratic Marxist. The Guardian, 18/2/2015 http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/18/yanis-varoufakis-how-i-became-an-erratic- marxist
Varoufakis, Y. (2015) The Global Minotaur. London: Zed Books.
Virilio, P. (2012) The Administration of Fear. London: Semiotext(e).

Downloads

Published

2016-03-10

Issue

No. 6 (2015): Technlogy and/as imaginary

Section

Topic

License

T

This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The author retains the copyright to their contribution, while allowing anyone “to reproduce, distribute, communicate to the public, publicly display, perform, execute and recite the work”, provided that the author and the title of the journal are properly acknowledged.

At the time of submitting the publication proposal, the author is also required to declare that the content and structure of the work are original and do not in any way infringe upon the rights of third parties, nor the obligations related to the protection of the moral and economic rights of other authors or rights holders, whether concerning texts, images, photographs, tables, or any other parts of which the contribution may consist.

The author further declares that they are aware of the penalties provided for under the criminal code and special laws in the event of false statements in official documents and the use of false documents. Therefore, the journal shall be exempt from any liability of any kind, whether civil, administrative, or criminal, and the author shall hold the journal harmless from any request, claim, or demand made by third parties.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).