Greenspan, Anna (2000) Capitalism's transcendental time machine. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis seeks to establish a connection between abstract thought

and material practice. It does so by focusing on the relation between the

transcendental philosophy of time and the socio-technics of time-keeping

practices.

The thesis begins with a discussion of Kant's philosophy of time as

outlined in the Critique of Pure Reason. It argues that Kant's discovery of the

transcendental coincides with the development of an entirely new conception

of time. This new conception overturns classical thought by making a

distinction between the abstract form of time and the empirical phenomena of

movement and change.

The second chapter maps the transcendental philosophy of time on to

the history of capitalist time-keeping. This history includes: the invention and

development of the mechanical clock, temporal standardization and the

increasing importance of the equation 'time = money. The aim in bringing

these two spheres together is to show, both that Kant's philosophy of time

owes much to his empirical surroundings, and also that capitalist time can

only be understood through the temporal abstraction of transcendental

thought. This link between Kant and capitalism is blocked, however, by a

dividing line which separates the philosophical nature of time from the

empirical changes of history.

In order to surpass this problem the thesis turns to the work of Deleuze

and Guattari whose 'transcendental materialism' connects the abstract

production of time with empirical innovations. This is accomplished by

replacing the classical conception of a transcendent eternity with the

immanent materiality of an exterior plane. This plane - which they call Aeonis

composed of thresholds, or singular events which make no distinction

between time and that which occurs in time. The final chapter explores the

dawn of the third millennium - or Y2K - as constituting one such Aeonic event.

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