Homo speculans, a chaos-embracing subject, displaces rationality-driven homo economicus.

Evidence

I engage the ideas of thinkers including Marx, Weber, and Castoriadis to show how homo speculans—the new political and economic subject of fin de siècle finance capitalism—arrives on the scene to usurp homo economicus from its throne. Unlike its rationality-driven forebear, homo speculans is a more relational and imaginative agent that throws itself in the whirlpool of life’s chaos without the desire to master its contingencies. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 46

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines homo speculans as the relational, imaginative subject who embraces rather than masters contingency — near the top of a reader wanting this exact term explained precisely.
• QUESTION: Given the reading purpose asks about reclaiming speculation for the left — does this portrait of the subject as embracing chaos prefigure the author’s later politics, or is it descriptive only?