Homo speculans is the rising hegemonic subject of early finance capitalism

Evidence

Both Marx and Weber, then, begin to offer tentative outlines of homo speculans, the rising hegemonic subject of early finance capitalism, by bringing its inherent contradictions into sharp focus: for Marx the core tension embodied in the abstracting forces of speculation was between fictitious (unreal) and material (real) values, while for Weber the defining conflict was that between the rationality and irrationality of speculative endeavors. For all their merits, however, their analyses do not engage directly with the unique type of imagination cutting through this ilk of contradiction, the profound force thrusting late industrial societies to the dizzying adventure of speculation—what I have so far called speculative imagination. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 146

Categorization

• DEFINE: Coinage moment of ‘homo speculans’ — exactly the definitional anchor the reader needs.
• QUESTION: The author introduces ‘speculative imagination’ as the missing force both Marx and Weber neglected; worth verifying how precisely he defines it later.
• XREF: connects to: Odysseus’s cunning mirrors the irrationality of early capitalist exchange; The figure of homo oeconomicus changes shape across centuries — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 52