#Marx#Marxism#Spinoza#Philosophy#WageSlavery#Work: "WILL LEWALLEN: You write that most resistance to work is often focused on the specific conditions of employment rather than the general conditions of wage labor. How could something like a four-day workweek help tackle these more universal conditions? And more broadly, what would the effect of a shorter working week be on the political imaginary?
JASON READ: That’s an important question. I think reducing work time would necessarily have the positive impact of creating new ways for people to think about their identities and place in the world other than through work. One of the things you have to take seriously about people’s investment in work, given that they are working so much, is that their free time is usually dedicated to what Marx calls the basic “animal functions” of sleeping, eating, etc. You create a sense in which people go to work because their friends are there; everything they understand about sociality comes from work. The more people work, the more they will begin to identify with work.
So reducing the working week or working days would free people from this cycle. If people have time to do something other than buy groceries and do their laundry just to return to work the next day, they can produce another sense of themselves outside the confines of work. Imagination functions like a wedge, a small point of entry for another way of thinking; if acted upon, it can then push for more. For example, the reduced workweek would give people more time to engage in politics, to demand less work still. One thing that limits political possibilities is work itself." https://jacobin.com/2024/04/marx-spinoza-four-day-workweek
then turned to the 'metaphysische Anfangsgründe ..."-text he is about there and gladly found this #phil#sunday#word
"... Weil ich den erweiterten, obgleich immer noch materiellen Raum nur in Gedanken habe und mir von der Materie, die ihn bezeichnet, nichts bekannt ist, so abstrahire ich von dieser, und er wird daher wie ein reiner, nicht empirischer und absoluter Raum vorgestellt, mit dem ich jeden empirischen vergleichen und diesen in ihm als beweglich vorstellen kann, der also jederzeit als unbeweglich gilt. Ihn zum wirklichen Dinge zu machen, heisst die logische Allgemeinheit irgend eines Raumes, mit dem ich jeden empirischen als darin eingeschlossen vergleichen kann, in eine physische Allgemeinheit des wirklichen Umfanges verwechseln, und die Vernunft in ihrer Idee missverstehen."
there's an imop particularly interesting preprint by Aaron Wells (uni paderborn) on Émilie du Châtelet and the Post-Newtonian Debate on the Physical Significance of Mathematical Objects, viz.
Think Least of Death
Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die
In Think Least of Death, Steven Nadler connects Spinoza’s ideas with his life and times to offer a compelling account of how the philosopher can provide a guide to living one’s best life.