ABSTRACT
The theory of temporality and historicity in question is based on two fundamental theses. First, in secular capitalism, semantic (language) and economic systems, and subjectivity—since the speaking subject is the subject of the signifier—are homologous systems of value. Second, time and social reality relate to one another in terms of Spinozist immanent causality, in which the cause (a priori time) is an effect of its own effects (empirical reality). This causality marks not only fantasy and desire but also so-called deductive logic and developmental history. Secular reason (including historiography) must become conscious of its own circularity or fantasmatic character. Addressing leading Marxist approaches to history, such as stage theories of capitalist development and the neo-Spinozist and deconstructionist Left, l argue that our concept of the ‘future’ must be radically revised. The ‘physical’ time of decaying bodies is left for a book that will link secular temporality to biopolitics.
