Speculative imagination, not just disciplined capital, drives capitalism forward

Evidence

Marx and Keynes, both, understood that it was “the animal spirits,” the speculative passions and expectations of the capitalist … that bore the system along, taking it in new directions and into new spaces (both literal and metaphorical)… . Until we insurgent architects know the courage of our minds and are prepared to take an equally speculative plunge into some unknown, we too will continue to be the objects of historical geography … rather than active subjects, consciously pushing human possibilities to their limits. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 17

Categorization

• XREF: Connection to Keynes’s ‘animal spirits’ as the core of homo speculans — the epigraph establishes the book’s thesis in a classical economics frame. — connects to: Finance’s speculative imagination shapes intimate desires deeper than economic principles do. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 339; Speculation, not conspiracy, is capitalism’s most powerful producer of unreality. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 563; Social theory neglected imagination in studying capitalism — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 157