The speculative subject accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty

Evidence

Contemporary capitalism sees the risk-taking, entrepreneurial agent of the post–Bretton Woods era being refashioned as a politically disoriented, speculative subject who accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty. Homo economicus is no longer. But although much has been said about its pronounced death, we still know remarkably little about the social and political subject that has succeeded it. Over the course of this book, I conceptualize the ascendancy of what we may call homo speculans and the consequences of this development for contemporary societies. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 25

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘homo speculans’ as the successor to homo economicus, defined by accepting rather than averting uncertainty.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s core goal of defining ‘homo speculans’. — connects to: Present conscious states derive meaning only from internal relation to the future; The future is a prejudicative self-relation, not representation or actual potency; Planned chance serves as an alibi for rationalized society — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113 (+12 more)