From the Publisher Time for Revolution explores the burning issue of our times: is there still a place for resistance in a society utterly subsumed by capitalism? Written in prison two decades apart, these two essays reflect Negri's abiding interest in the philosophy of time and resistance. The first is a central work in Negri's oeuvre, tracing the fracture lines which force capitalist society into perpetual crisis. The second essay, written immediately after the global bestseller, Empire, provides a conceptual toolbox, deepening our understanding of the two key concepts of empire and multitude. Editorial Reviews - Time for Revolution From the Publisher Time for Revolution explores the burning issue of our times: is there still a place for resistance in a society utterly subsumed by capitalism? Written in prison two decades apart, these two essays reflect Negri's abiding interest in the philosophy of time and resistance. The first is a central work in Negri's oeuvre, tracing the fracture lines which force capitalist society into perpetual crisis. The second essay, written immediately after the global bestseller, Empire, provides a conceptual toolbox, deepening our understanding of the two key concepts of empire and multitude. Features - Time for Revolution Table of Contents Table of Contents AcknowledgementsTranslator's introduction11First Displacement: the time of subsumed being232First Construction: collective time A483First Construction: collective time B544Second Construction: productive time A645Second Construction: productive time B716Third Construction: constitutive time A827Third Construction: constitutive time B918Second Displacement: the time of the revolution W1079Third Displacement: the time of the revolution Y120Afterword127Kairos, Alma Venus, Multitudo139Notes262Bibliography290 Synopsis Negri's commentary on what he believes is the global capitalist empire is well-known, and these two texts, written decades apart in prison, help to de
Antonio Negri was an Italian political philosopher known as one of the most prominent theorists of autonomism, as well as for his co-authorship of Empire with Michael Hardt and his work on the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Born in Padua, Italy, Negri became a professor of political philosophy at the University of Padua, where he taught state and constitutional theory. Negri founded the Potere Operaio (Worker Power) group in 1969 and was a leading member of Autonomia Operaia, and published hugely influential books urging "revolutionary consciousness." Negri was accused in the late 1970s of various charges including being the mastermind of the left-wing urban guerrilla organization Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse or BR), which was involved in the May 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro. On 7 April 1979, he Negri was arrested and charged with a long list of crimes including the Moro murder. Most charges were dropped quickly, but in 1984 he was still sentenced (in absentia) to 30 years in prison. He was given an additional four years on the charge of being "morally responsible" for the violence of political activists in the 1960s and 1970s. The question of Negri's complicity with left-wing extremism is a controversial subject. He was indicted on a number of charges, including "association and insurrection against the state" (a charge which was later dropped), and sentenced for involvement in two murders. Negri fled to France where, protected by the Mitterrand doctrine, he taught at the Paris VIII (Vincennes) and the Collège international de philosophie, along with Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze. In 1997, after a plea-bargain that reduced his prison time from 30 to 13 years, he returned to Italy to serve the end of his sentence. Many of his most influential books were published while he was behind bars. He hence lived in Venice and Paris with his partner, the French philosopher Judith Revel. He was the father of film director Anna Negri. Like Deleuze, Negri's preoccupation with Spinoza is well known in contemporary philosophy. Along with Althusser and Deleuze, he has been one of the central figures of a French-inspired neo-Spinozism in continental philosophy of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, that was the second remarkable Spinoza revival in history, after a well-known rediscovery of Spinoza by German thinkers (especially the German Romantics and Idealists) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Best line - one must be destitute to be a philosopher. The sense of desperation puts all the inessential questions to the wayside...but, as I found in my times being poor, it always turned me into a communist. One always gravitates towards, no, obsesses about what one lacks! Power, money, sustenence..which creates a sense that one has fallen out of capitalist times where all is provided at one with the middle class pie in the sky.
You couldn't call this an easy read. As with most of the best philosophers it requires hard work and interpretation. However it is worth it, Negri is able to deconstruct the middle class capitalist ideal and examine how it fails all but the top 5% taken in the context in which globilization and more, capital make the parliamentary decisions.
Negri, zaman fikrini sadece fiziki veya tarihsel bir akış olarak değil, üretim ilişkileriyle, sınıf mücadelesiyle ve devrimci praksisle örülü bir ontolojik alan olarak ele alır. Bu yaklaşımla, klasik zaman – emek ilişkisini, Fordist paradigmanın ötesine taşır ve zamanın bizzat sömürü nesnesine dönüştüğü post-Fordist düzende, zamana karşı devrimci bir müdahale imkanını sorgular.
Negri’nin yöntemi yoğunlukla Spinoza, Marx, Deleuze-Guattari ve Foucault çizgisinden beslenen ontolojik bir materyalizmle şekillenir. Zamanı yalnızca kapitalist üretim sürecinin ölçüsü değil, aynı zamanda çokluğun (multitudo) kurucu eylemi içinde yeniden üretilen bir alan olarak inşa eder.
Kitap üç ana bölümden oluşur:
1) Zamanın Oluşumu: Burada kapitalizmin zamanı nasıl boyunduruk altına aldığı tartışılır. Zaman, sermayenin üretkenlik ölçüsü haline gelir. Ancak bu sürecin içinde antagonistik bir direnç potansiyeli barındığı vurgulanır.
2) Kolektif, Üretken ve Kurucu Zaman: Bu bölümlerde zamanın yeniden kazanımı, kolektif praksisle ilişkilendirilir. Negri, zamanın artık üretken işbirliği ve toplumsal yaratıcılık aracılığıyla yeni bir kurucu zemin olarak nasıl örgütlenebileceğini sorgular.
3) Kairos, Alma Venus ve Multitudo: Bu bölümde felsefi derinlik artar. “Kairos” yani uygun an, devrimci zamanın özünü temsil eder. “Alma Venus” başlığında ortak yaşam, beden, aşk ve arzu gibi boyutlarla zamansallığın ilişkisi kurulurken, “Multitudo” kavramı altında devrimci özne tartışılır.
Negri’ye göre multitudo, artık merkezi bir proletarya figürü değil, farklı toplumsal deneyimlerin, ilişkisel pratiklerin ve maddi olmayan emeğin kurduğu ağsal ve çoğul bir öznelliktir. Bu, klasik sınıf mücadelesi modellerini aşan, fakat onlarla bağını koparmayan yeni bir siyasal özne teorisidir.
Bu çalışma, hem çağdaş kapitalizmin zaman üzerindeki tahakkümünü eleştirir hem de alternatif bir siyasal ontoloji önerir. Zaman, burada sadece tarihsel olayların dizisi değil, mücadeleyle iç içe geçmiş bir üretim alanıdır. Üretkenlik, bilgi, arzu, kolektivite gibi unsurlar, artık yalnızca ekonomik değil, ontolojik-politik boyutlarıyla da değerlendirilir.
Negri’nin felsefi yönelimi, öznenin devrimci potansiyelini tek bir sınıf ya da merkez üzerinden değil, bir çokluk üzerinden düşünmeye zorlar. Bu çokluk; kadınlar, göçmenler, öğrenciler, prekarya ve genel anlamda maddi olmayan emek biçimleriyle ilgilidir. Bu bağlamda devrim, bir “şimdi-zaman”da (Jetzt-Zeit) gerçekleşecek olan ani ve sıçramalı bir dönüşüm değil; kolektif, süreğen, imkânları örgütleyici bir kurucu sürece dönüşür.