Frédéric Lordon – författare

Why do people work for other people? This seemingly naïve question is more difficult to answer than one might at first imagine, and it lies at the heart of Lordon's Willing Slaves of Capital. To complement Marx's partial answers, especially in the face of the disconcerting spectacle of the engaged, enthusiastic employee, Lordon brings to bear a "Spinozist anthropology" that reveals the fundamental role of affects and passions in the employment relationship, reconceptualizing capitalist exploitation as the capture and remoulding of desire. A thoroughly materialist reading of Spinoza's Ethics allows Lordon to debunk notions of individual autonomy and selfdetermination while simultaneously saving the ideas of political freedom and liberation from capitalist exploitation. Willing Slaves of Capital is a bold proposal to rethink capitalism and its transcendence on the basis of the contemporary experience of work.

Why do people work for other people? This seemingly na�ve question is more difficult to answer than one might at first imagine, and it lies at the heart of Lordon''s Willing Slaves of Capital. To complement Marx''s partial answers, especially in the face of the disconcerting spectacle of the engaged, enthusiastic employee, Lordon brings to bear a "Spinozist anthropology" that reveals the fundamental role of affects and passions in the employment relationship, reconceptualizing capitalist exploitation as the capture and remoulding of desire. A thoroughly materialist reading of Spinoza''s Ethics allows Lordon to debunk notions of individual autonomy and selfdetermination while simultaneously saving the ideas of political freedom and liberation from capitalist exploitation. Willing Slaves of Capital is a bold proposal to rethink capitalism and its transcendence on the basis of the contemporary experience of work.

What should we do with the ideals of internationalism, the withering away of state and horizontality? Probably start by thinking seriously about them. That is to say, about their conditions of possibility (or impossibility), rather than sticking to the wishful thinking which believes that for them to happen it is enough to want them. Humanity exists neither as a dust cloud of separate individuals nor as a unified world political community. It exists fragmented into distinct finite wholes, the forms of which have varied considerably throughout history - the nation-state being only one among many, and certainly not the last. What are the forces that produce this fragmentation, engender such groupings and prevent them from being perfectly horizontal, but also lead them to disappear, merge, or change form? It is questions such as these that this book explores, drawing on Spinoza''s political philosophy and especially his two central concepts of multitudo and imperium.

What should we do with the ideals of internationalism, the withering away of state and horizontality? Probably start by thinking seriously about them. That is to say, about their conditions of possibility (or impossibility), rather than sticking to the wishful thinking which believes that for them to happen it is enough to want them. Humanity exists neither as a dust cloud of separate individuals nor as a unified world political community. It exists fragmented into distinct finite wholes, the forms of which have varied considerably throughout history - the nation-state being only one among many, and certainly not the last. What are the forces that produce this fragmentation, engender such groupings and prevent them from being perfectly horizontal, but also lead them to disappear, merge, or change form? It is questions such as these that this book explores, drawing on Spinoza's political philosophy and especially his two central concepts of multitudo and imperium.

Quand, en janvier 1999, la Société Générale décide de fusionner avec Paribas, la BNP, isolée, n’a pas d’autre choix, pour survivre, que de lancer une double contre-OPE, événement inouï dans le capitalisme français. Ce livre suit au plus près ce combat des OPE qui va faire rage pendant six mois, pour en restituer toutes les manœuvres et tous les mouvements sur l’échiquier du capital. Les puissances d’argent ne font pas qu’acheter, vendre ou investir : elles ne cessent de chercher à s’allier, s’influencer ou se dominer. Cette politique du capital a moins pour objet le profit que la conservation, l’expansion et l’affirmation de la puissance. Ce livre en trouve le fin mot chez Spinoza qui fait voir derrière les motions déchaînées de la prédation financière l’effort vital déployé par chacun " pour persévérer dans son être ". Frédéric Lordon est chargé de recherche au CNRS et membre du CEPREMAP.