Open in app

Sign in

Write

Sign in

Alexander Douglas
Alexander Douglas

1.2K Followers

Home

About

Nov 17

A crucial point missing from debates about capitalism

I just read Ben Burgis’s reply to Sabine Hossenfelder’s controversial video defending capitalism. This is deep blogosphere stuff, and I’m not going to go into it, except to say that it reminds me of a fundamental point that seems to never get mentioned in debates about capitalism. Inevitably, these debates…

Capitalism

7 min read

A crucial point missing from debates about capitalism
A crucial point missing from debates about capitalism
Capitalism

7 min read


Published in

Genus Specious

·Oct 9

The Labour Theory of Value is Correct and Important

I’m returning to the Labour Theory of Value (LTV) after writing a series of posts about it here, here, here, here, and here. Writers on Marx often claim that the LTV isn’t necessary to understand his story about capitalism, the nature of exploitation, etc. A recent example is found in…

Marx

9 min read

The Labour Theory of Value is Correct and Important
The Labour Theory of Value is Correct and Important
Marx

9 min read


Sep 12

Is Reality Spiritual? The Forgotten May Sinclair

May Sinclair (1863–1946) is remembered as a novelist, but not very much as a philosopher. She was, however, one of the most creative and eloquent defenders of British idealism against the attacks of early analytic philosophy. While there has been significant work recently recovering the contributions of women in early…

Idealism

4 min read

Is Reality Spiritual? The Forgotten May Sinclair
Is Reality Spiritual? The Forgotten May Sinclair
Idealism

4 min read


Published in

Genus Specious

·Feb 14

Analytic Philosophy, Bourgeois Ideology

My friend Christoph Schuringa touched a real nerve with his Jacobin piece on analytic philosophy. What I took from his piece is, roughly, that analytic philosophy is bourgeois ideology. That’s to say, it is a research programme that ultimately serves the interest of the ruling classes, the bourgeoisie. …

8 min read

Analytic Philosophy, Bourgeois Ideology
Analytic Philosophy, Bourgeois Ideology

8 min read


Nov 10, 2022

Shadow Socialism

Some socialists are “market” socialists, others are “planning” socialists. “Planning” usually means central planning, though not always. Robin Hahnel and others have for a while been advocating a system of democratic economic planning, though I think it would be fairest to say that this is somewhere in between a planning…

6 min read

Shadow Socialism
Shadow Socialism

6 min read


Nov 3, 2021

Fascism wasn’t needed

The attack on the US Capitol Building gave new impetus to an ongoing media debate over whether Donald Trump (and others like him) should be called a fascist. There is a limit to how fruitful debates like this can be, of course. There is no simple rule on how we…

Fascism

6 min read

Fascism wasn’t needed
Fascism wasn’t needed
Fascism

6 min read


Jun 19, 2021

Discount Rates, Exploitation, and the End of Capitalism

Alexander Douglas I don’t often have the opportunity to publicly engage in general speculation about our economic future. I hope you don’t mind my using this event as such an opportunity. Everything I say below is offered as a mere speculation, whose establishment would depend on a great deal of…

Capitalism

22 min read

Capitalism

22 min read


May 17, 2021

More on Spinozist and Zhuangzist Immortality

I wrote before about Hao Wang’s suggestion that Spinoza’s view on immortality — or what Spinoza calls “the eternity of the mind”:

Spinoza

9 min read

More on Spinozist and Zhuangzist Immortality
More on Spinozist and Zhuangzist Immortality
Spinoza

9 min read


Jan 12, 2021

Justin Smith on René Girard

Justin Smith wrote a fairly critical blog post on René Girard to which I feel moved to reply. A lot of it attacks Girard’s appeal in Silicon Valley, which I don’t know much about. But the post also criticises Girard’s theory itself. …

Rene Girard

9 min read

Justin Smith on René Girard
Justin Smith on René Girard
Rene Girard

9 min read


Published in

Genus Specious

·Nov 29, 2020

A Bit More on Marx and Cohen

In the last post I questioned G.A. Cohen’s critique of the Labour Theory of Value, which comes in two parts: (1) the LTV involves a mistaken idea that labour creates value; (2) Marx’s theory of exploitation can be retained without the LTV. These have been taken as established by some…

Marx

5 min read

Marx

5 min read

Alexander Douglas

Alexander Douglas

1.2K Followers

Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews — personal website: https://axdouglas.com/

Following
  • Paul Mason

    Paul Mason

  • Medieval Indonesia

    Medieval Indonesia

  • Owen Jones

    Owen Jones

  • Michael Otsuka

    Michael Otsuka

  • Justin Ales

    Justin Ales

See all (136)

Help

Status

About

Careers

Blog

Privacy

Terms

Text to speech

Teams