Being-in-Capital: A Study in the Existential and Sociological Conditions of Post-industrial Capitalism

The purpose of this thesis is threefold: firstly, to argue for the possibility of a Heideggerian Marxism through demonstration; secondly, to attempt to establish the foundation for a future phenomenology of capitalism; and thirdly, to attempt to redress Karl Marx’s weak theory of alienated subjectivity. I do this through the gradual development of a new concept that I have come to call being-in-capital. The first chapter is thus generally dedicated to preparation, concretized through a familiarization with Martin Heidegger’s system of thought, as embodied in four of his works: Being and Time, “The Origin of the Work of Art,” the “Letter on Humanism,” and “The Question Concerning Technology.” Following this engagement with Heidegger, we come to Karl Marx’s Capital, Volume One, “The German Ideology,” and “The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” whose purpose is to supply the materialist half of being-in-capital. The third chapter seeks to investigate being-in-capital as an effect of the post-industrial decline of Detroit, Michigan. Concluding the thesis are a few words on the difficulties involved in the creation of a Heideggerian Marxism