We Cannot Draw Closed the Net in Which We Are Caught—Walter Benjamin’s Fragment Capitalism as Religion 1

In this chapter, the author presents the analysis of Benjamin's fragment Capitalism as Religion and focuses on the kind of critique of capitalism that Benjamin establishes, rather than his description. He, however, argues that in the fragment, questions of ontology—what capitalism is—and of methodology are tightly intertwined. With Rahel Jaeggi, the author distinguishes between immanent, internal, and external critique on one hand and functional, moral, and ethical critique on the other hand. He shows what kind of critique of capitalism Benjamin establishes, while characterizing capitalism as a guilt-ridden cult. For Benjamin, describing capitalism does not allow for a critique of ideology as a critique of deception. Benjamin delineates his analysis of capitalism as a structure of immanence from Max Weber. The author argues that Benjamin's critique of capitalism is a moral critique of capitalism, but not a moral critique of capitalism in a contemporary sense.