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Focusing on the relationship between capitalism,
rationalization and scarcity, this book offers a
critical reinterpretation of Marx, Weber, Lukacs and
Gramsci.
Pointing out the materialist elements in Weber's
conception of the impulse underlying religious
rationalization, this work argues that the emergence
of capitalism creates the possibility of an
alternative society that would use modern
technology to drastically reduce the
existence of undeserved human suffering that
religious theodicies have tried to interpret. Thus,
the emergence of capitalist society has
inadvertently initiated a new stage in the
rationalization process. The challenge is no longer
to provide a coherent explanation of undeserved
human suffering, but to undertake the social change
necessary to reduce it.
This challenge can be met by an alternative society
that would use modern technology to overcome
scarcity and meet everybody's needs. In this
respect, capitalism creates a universal human
interest in its own overcoming. To understand the
obstacles to the recognition of this universal
interest, this work draws from and reinterprets the
works of Lukacs and Gramsci.
About the author
Costas Panayotakis is Associate Professor of Sociology at the New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York. He has published numerous articles on political economy, social theory and ecology.
