Philosophical and Political Consequences of the Critique of Political Economy

This book extends the approach that Murray and Schuler develop in their companion volume, False Moves in Philosophy and Social Theory: Losing Public Purpose. The chapters form a connected inquiry into consequences of capital, a far-reaching social form, through a critique of political economy and the mindset it shares with much modern philosophy and social theory. The authors call this bifurcating mentality factoring philosophy. Factoring philosophy mistakes the distinguishable for the separable. It splits the subjective and objective, form and content, and it takes the object of social theory to be an impossible economy-in-general, stripped of constitutive social forms. The critique of factoring philosophy structures the collection, which makes a wide-ranging contribution to the research field of the critique of political economy as critical social theory. Ultimately, this book solidifies Murray and Schuler’s impact on the study of political economy, political philosophy, modern philosophy, Hegel, Marx, and critical theory. 

Patrick Murray is John C. Kenefick Faculty Chair in the Humanities and professor of philosophy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska.  He is author of Marx’s Theory of Scientific Knowledge and The Mismeasure of Wealth and editor of Reflections on Commercial Life.  His research interests center on capitalism and modern philosophy. 

Jeanne Schuler is professor of philosophy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska.  She has published in the history of philosophy and critical theory, including articles on Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Arendt, Iris Murdoch, and Habermas.  She is working on a series of articles on Hegel and modern philosophy.