Tommaso Caprotti
I am a PhD Candidate (2021-2025) in PAIS working in political theory/political philosophy. I hold a BA (Liberal Arts: Humanities) from Amsterdam University College, an MA (Religious Studies) from SOAS, an MSc (Political Theory) from the LSE, and an MPhil (Political Thought and Intellectual History) from the University of Cambridge.
My project is supervised by Professor Matthew Watson, and Professor Stuart Elden.
Research Project
Throughout my PhD project, I aim to recuperate Marx鈥檚 concept of alienation and tie it into his mature critique of Political Economy, in particular via the concept of abstract labour. In formulating this reconstruction, I engage with a particular current of Marxist value-theory, which I term 鈥榟yper-Hegelian鈥�: unlike forms of Hegelian Marxism which transpose the dialectic within material reality proper; and against currents which attempt to reduce Marxism to an objective 鈥渟cience鈥�, or to straitjacket the critique of political economy within a crude analytical framework — this form of Marxism locates the dialectic exclusively at the mediating frontier where private labour becomes social, via abstraction. I counter contemporary rejections of Marx鈥檚 critique of alienation as 鈥渆ssentialist鈥� by contending that, for Marx, alienation refers to the estrangement of a process rather than of an essence.
By connecting this 鈥渞econstructed鈥� concept of alienation to a coextensive positive conception of labour, I intend to intervene into contemporary debates concerning freedom and self-realization by positively engaging with the thought of, amongst others, thinkers such as Rahel Jaeggi and Martin H盲gglund. At the same time, I aim to critique the recent theoretical trend which imagines futures of post-work and accelerated automation.
More generally, my (still limited) expertise lies in subject areas ranging from political philosophy to the history of political thought. Broader interests include the history of economic thought, feminist theory, the history of Marxism.
Teaching
I am currently (2022-2023) teaching seminar groups for the module 鈥楶olitical Research in the 21st Century鈥� (PO102), a core component for the undergraduate degrees in Politics and in Politics and International Studies.
Advice and Feedback Hours
I am based in London: contact me via email and we can arrange to meet in person when I鈥檓 on campus, usually Mondays and Tuesdays.