Manorial Capitalism, Enslavement, and the Logic of Dividuation

Manorial Capitalism, Enslavement, and the Logic of Dividuation proffers three perspectives on the plantation slave economy of the Antebellum South. The first explores the paternal function as exemplified in the structural authority of the lord of the manor both symbolically and operationally. This figure of masculine authority persisted from the Medieval period to orchestrate what is called here Manorial Capitalism. The second examines the exploitation and alienation that epitomize the logic of capitalism from the plantation economy to the present. And the third deploys retroactively the logic of dividuation to the plantation, a logic that draws its inspiration from neoliberal financial capitalism as well as from anthropological accounts (which distinguish the dividual from the Cartesian-Kantian individual). This book argues that reducing individuals to dividuated components continues to enable a dehumanizing capitalist mindset to fixate on abstracted labor power rather than seeing laboring individuals.

Raphael Sassower is professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is the author of numerous books and articles in philosophy, economics, and the social sciences, including The Specter of Hypocrisy (2020), The Quest for Prosperity: Reframing Political Economy (2017), and Postcapitalism: Moving Beyond Ideology in Economic Crises (2009).