In the World Interior of Capital: Towards a Philosophical Theory of Globalization

by Peter Sloterdijk

Displaying the distinctive combination of narration and philosophy for which he is well known, this new book by Peter Sloterdijk develops a radically new account of globalization at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author takes seriously the historical and philosophical consequences of the notion of the earth as a globe, arriving at the thesis that what is praised or decried as globalization is actually the end phase in a process that began with the first circumnavigation of the earth o and that one can already discern elements of a new era beyond globalization. In the end phase of globalization, the world system completed its development and, as a capitalist system, came to determine all conditions of life. Sloterdijk takes the Crystal Palace in London, the site of the first world exhibition in 1851, as the most expressive metaphor for this situation. The palace demonstrates the inevitable exclusivity of globalization as the construction of a comfort structure o that is, the establishment and expansion of a world interior whose boundaries are invisible, yet virtually insurmountable from without, and which is inhabited by one and a half billion winners of globalization; three times this number are left standing outside the door.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Economics, Architecture, 21st Century

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Peter Sloterdijk is a German philosopher, cultural theorist, television host and columnist. He is a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe.

Peter Sloterdijk studied philosophy, Germanistics and history at the University of Munich. In 1975 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg. Since 1980 he has published many philosophical works, including the Critique of Cynical Reason. In 2001 he was named president of the State Academy of Design, part of the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. In 2002 he began to co-host Das Philosophische Quartett, a show on the German ZDF television channel devoted to discussing key issues affecting present-day society.

The Kritik der Zynischen Vernunft (Critique of Cynical Reason), published by Suhrkamp in 1983, became the best-selling philosophical book in the German language since the Second World War and launched Sloterdijk's career as an author.

The trilogy Spheres is the philosopher's magnum opus. The first volume was published in 1998, the second in 1999, and the last in 2004.

Reviews

[Charlie Huenemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the period between 1492 and 1945, the globe came into existence, and soon was wreathed in exchanges of slaves, spices, and gold. It grew smaller as we traveled faster, and the attempt was made to squash all local difference into a convenient and manageable homogeneity. The emblem for this may be the Crystal Palace, a glass building enclosing the world exhibition of 1851, which gave the illusion of a worldwide single shared space. In all of this, in how many ways has our self-understanding deceived itself? This, or something like this, is what Sloterdijk's book is about. It reads as a shorter companion to his Spheres trilogy, and provides a fascinating résumé of that work, while still being distinctively original.

[Jean Ra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sloterdijk me parece un pensador muy lúcido sin embargo está, por un lado, lastrado por su tendencia a espesar el lenguaje para sonar más docto y por el otro a domar sus ramalazos de soberbia, que se perciben con claridad, y parece que deba regañar de forma regular a cualquier elemento fuera de su cosmovisión. A lo mejor es que no es un escritor o pensador para mí, de cualquier forma no sé si retendré demasiado las ideas más o menos interesantes y provechosas acerca de la Historia, sociología y política que esboza dentro del texto.

[Brenden O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the axis Sloterdijk provides for thinking of globalization throughout history as both a returning to earlier forms and a slowly building compression of space. For example, he makes connections between medieval conceptions of locality, i.e. bilocality, the ability to inhabit two places at once, and digital experiences of translocality, in which distance collapses and no longer provides an obstacle. Between them is terrestrial globalism, in which the obstacle of distance is fetishized and the goal becomes discovery. At the same time, he describes the ways in which space becomes slowly more compressed: from the ancients, whose morphological conception of the globe recognized no limits; to the ages of empire, whose expanded globe was compromised by the possibility of mapping the entire thing; to finally the electronic globe, in which you're stuck where you are no matter where you go because the reach of capital has shot through and homogenized the globe. So one of the major lessons I learned was the distinction between place and space: two pieces of jargon I often conflate.

And that ultimately seems to be Sloterdijk's investment, right? To take inventory of terms, so that we can root our political and economic analyses in philosophy once again. If we all subscribe to the same grand narrative, then our words can actually mean again, rather than shifting around sensational news about the state of things. It makes it possible to describe the state of things as either worse or better, and for it to actually mean something. He ends with an urgent call of asymmetry, the "immune system" the local can cultivate against the reach of global capital, but in a sense I think this is equally a call to disagree with him on philosophical terms, so that productive conversations can be had. Let's hash out, once and for all, which definitions of "right" and "left" the history of the world leaves us with, and argue for or against the political implications of certain practices: whether they be cultural nationalism, opening far-reaching corporate branches, or even just having a nicely curated apartment.

[Michael Meeuwis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to do justice to this book in a short review. The briefest summary that I can think of is that it's an account of how the spherical world became merchant shipping became capitalism became a Benjamin-like bourgeois interior (with the Crystal Palace as its exemplar) became the modern divided first and third world. That sort of does it, but not really. The opening section advances the idea that it's going to present a metanarrative--noting that the resistance to metanarratives has itself become one--and the book itself certainly provides this. I found the earlier eighteenth-century chapters on the world's oceanic construction to be most useful. I found the nineteenth-century account of the Crystal Palace paradigm intriguing, if not maybe vastly different than Benjamin's account of bourgeois interiors in the "Arcades Project," despite the fact that it claims to be. I found the twentieth-century anti-American stuff to be a bit rote: not without insight, but also not too much you wouldn't expect if I said "the contemporary European left's critique of American, you know, everything." If only briefly, this book gives one of the most theoretically-astute accounts of piracy I've read; it obviously had me at "buccaneering." And the American/contemporary section is not without insight, particularly with regard to the importance of chosen-ness to the narrative of people who emigrate to America--I certainly saw a bit of myself in there. I guess I'm just not that interested in accounts of the US as a sort of vast false consciousness, even as salient critical points are made.

[Leonardo]

En su obra "En el mundo interior del capital", Peter Sloterdijk demuestra cómo, en la globalización actual, el sistema mundial completó su desarrollo y, en cuanto que sistema capitalista, acabó determinando todas las condiciones de vida.

Lo que Sloterdijk señaló correctamente es que la globalización capitalista no representa tan sólo apertura y conquista, sino también un mundo encerrado en sí mismo que separa el Interior de su Exterior. Los dos aspectos son inseparables: el alcance global del capitalismo se fundamenta en la manera en que introduce una división radical de clases en todo el mundo, separando a los que están protegidos por la esfera de los que quedan fuera de su cobertura.

La nueva lucha de clases Pág.11-12

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

many philosophers or historians, I don't know what you'd call peter(I have no context for who peter is I picked this up because my ethics professor was reading this book), are very much obsessed with the anecdote. ira glass of this american life says that the best way to tell non fiction is by stringing together anecdotes. peter refuses to do this, infact this book is the antithesis of that world view. nothing is small in this book.

I thought he reminded me a lot of marx for this reason and not because he talks of capital. he's worried about the big picture and not only that but he sort of sees america as the same sort of canvas as to paint his ideas onto.

he's also excruciatingly german. much of this doesn't translate well into english. it comes off as pretentious but I'm sure there's just some things lost in translation.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sloterdijk descreve historicamente o processo de globalização desde as grandes expansões marítimas, até chegar na era da constatação da pluralidade de uma vizinhança forçada. Em diálogo direto com autores como Heidegger, Fichte, Nietzsche e Marx, ele descreve o estar em um espaço compactado e marcado pelo dinheiro que penetra em todas as relações.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

May be his most important work if you don't want to go through the Spheres trilogy.

[Roger Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have read so far this year. I knew this by the time I had finished part 1 of the book. It is erudite, funny, and its content is indispensable for considering the longer history of globalization. Melville scholars and those concerned with indigenous peoples will find lots of candid remarks from a European perspective about the impulses behind colonialism.

[Frank Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting observations, but cluttered by lots of hyphens, neologisms, and ten-euro words. Part one seemed overwrought - part two was more focused and the underlying metaphors a bit more helpful. Chapter 39 on the "The exception" (America that is; nicely played) was one of the better parts, but it took a lot to get there.

[Jon Benjamin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good.

(note all typos in these quotes are not mine, direct copy from ebook)

"It constitutes a geographical- philosophical bastard whose logical and physical peculiarities are not so simple to comprehend. On the one hand, the printed blue orb with the savannah-coloured patches initially seems no more than one thing among many things, a small body among many bodies, that states- men and schoolchildren set in rotation with a single hand movement;"

" the printed blue orb with the savannah-coloured patches "

Every page is like this.

I'll try to be fair to this book since I only read about 10 pages. The author mercifully defines his argument early and doesn't try to hide his motivations. He thinks grand narratives about history have failed and everyone, even the lowly "gallery owner", knows this truth. More specifically he thinks laypeople now understand that there is no such thing as a grand narrative which grants humanity "access to the engine room of world history - or even the administrative floor of the tower of babel."

Immediately after coming to these reasonable conclusions he writes:

"The wretchedness of the conventional forms of grand narrative by no means lies in the fact that they were too great, but that they were not great enough."

At this point you're probably asking yourself, is that really the problem with grand narratives? That they're not great enough? The author then throws his entire lot behind that argument:

"Is this new intellectual myth [abanonment of grand narratives] not allied unmistakably with an acerbic sluggishness that sees in the extensive only the burdensome, and in the great only the suggestion of mania?"

"Has thinking not always meant taking on the challenge that the excessive would appear
concretely before us? And is this excessiveness that challenges us to act conceptually not inherently irreconcilable with the tranquillizing nature of the mediocre?"

So you get the picture. The author is going to be our noble guide to the one GREAT (not grand) narrative that boldly accepts the challenge (to the chagrin of the sluggish and mediocre academics, I'm sure) of clearing up all that darn burdensome history we just can't seem to explain simply.

Do you want to read someone's 256 page argument for a grand narrative of globalization when on the first two pages he basically admits that grand narratives have been discredited by most scholars? Well that really depends on if you think you're about to read the work of a visionary genius or if this is just another book to throw on the stack of grand narratives. The most interesting part is that the author agrees that most grand narratives have not only been ultimately wrong but they have almost always been in the service of some kind of totalitarian scheme. Despite all of this the author thought it wasn't a waste of time to write this book.

[Nicolas]

Sloterdijk propose ici un décryptage holistique de l’être-au-monde "mondialisé". Comme souvent chez l’auteur allemand, la densité ontologique requiert des temps d’arrêt; l’espacement des moments d’imprégnation paraît indispensable au risque d’une surchauffe du décodeur...



Il s'agit de répondre à la question suivante : comment a-t-on pu en arriver aux situations de l’âge global?



Pour rendre compte du climat d’un "système intégral de marchandise", Solterdijk évoque l’idée d’un palais de la consommation à l’échelle planétaire ; une architectonique du grand intérieur. Sloterdijk se base ici sur l’image du palais de cristal forgée par Dostoïevski– métaphore renvoyant au fameux grand édifice de l’Exposition universelle de 1851 à Londres.



L'auteur propose dès lors une contre-histoire du cheminement vers l’établissement du palais de cristal. Cette grande marche vers le confort - où l'on croise conquistadors, colons, explorateurs, télécommunicateurs catholiques et news groups jésuites - débouche sur une posthistoire contemporaine ; une cristallisation de toutes les espèces de passé en plasma d’une "history of everything" (P. 240).



D'après ce diagnostic précis, l’ennui diffus, d’une part, le stress non spécifique, d’autre part, constituent les universaux atmosphériques de l’existence en serre. Une serre autopoïétique qui débouche également sur un état d’"apartheid universel".



Impossible de rendre compte ici de l’exhaustivité quasi-hypertextuelle des propos précités. Notons tout de même que les interrogations de Sloterdijk s’avèrent éminemment actuelles :



"Pour ce qui concerne le capitalisme spéculatif comme programme invasif et abstrait débouchant sur la réussite, il faudra appeler ses exégètes actuels à prouver qu’ils ne sont pas les partisans d’une secte opérant au niveau global ; le soupçon de "capitalisme comme religion" est exprimé et attend qu’on le dissipe." (p. 374)



En matière de coalitions politiques Sloterdijk présage le retour conditionnés aux anciennes valeurs – l’alliance entre converservatisme et "Postfossilité". Alors que la social-démocratie ennuie, une situation post-libérale alliant partis libéraux-conservateurs et écologistes augurerait ainsi la synthèse hybride d’avant-gardisme technique et de modération éco-conservatrice.



Aussi, sur base de ces propos, dans ce "Monde libre" et véritablement clos, un Président Obama, figurerait comme concierge-en-chef du Palais de cristal ou superintendant du Grand-Magasin. En particulier si l'on considère que "les frontières externes de la serre sont en effet marquées, pratiquement partout, par la présence de troupes américaines." (p. 354)



De même, qui pourrait nier que « l’Union européenne après son parachèvement relatif en mai 2004 […] est aujourd’hui précisément incarnée dans un grand intérieur de ce type ? » (p. 246). L’UE, cet espace de l’ultra-confort et du cocooning aseptisé...

[Xiiz Iikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this work, Peter Sloterdijk evaluates the globalization of the world economy and its effects on people as well as communities. He criticizes how capital spreading all over has caused a uniformity in culture along with diminishing individual and communal character. Furthermore, he claims that these flows have generated an "world interior" where individuals are alienated from each other plus nature. Altogether Sloterdijk presents an interesting focusing on the global integration by turning to diverse figures ranging between Kant and Marx to Freud or even Heidegger.

[Emma Sea]

Oi! Polity Press! *waves* Why no Kindle edition??

[Jack Lively]

this is good. it's funny. every few lines i was laughing out loud. not sure you will tho.