rwer | The Scientist and the Church is a wide-ranging biography of research,
showcasing Bichler and Nitzan’s attempts to break through the stifling
dogmas of the academic church and chart a new scientific cosmology of
capitalism. Central to the authors’ work is the notion that capital is
not a productive economic category but capitalized power, and that
capitalism should be conceived and researched not as a mode of
production and consumption but as a mode of power.
The articles collected in this volume outline the general contours of
their approach, flesh out some of their recent research and offer
personal insights into the broader politics of their journey. The first
chapters reexamine the common foundations of the neoclassical and
Marxist doctrines, sketch the contours of the authors’ alternative
cosmology of capitalized power, identify the asymptotes – or limits – of
this power and explore the all-encompassing logic of modern finance.
Subsequent chapters research the connection between redistribution and
cyclical crises, reassess the Marxist nexus between imperialism
and financialism, rethink the oft-misunderstood role of crime and
punishment in the capitalist mode of power and articulate a new theory
and history of Middle-East energy conflicts. The closing chapters
include two big-picture interviews, as well as riveting reflections on
the authors’ own scientific clashes with the church.
