Aesthetic Nature of Mode of Production: On Marx and Ranciere

In this paper, we aim to investigate the aesthetic dimensions of Marx’s theory through the lens of Ranciére’s conception of “the sensible”. To this aim, we begin with the generic idea of the production and the alienated senses in Marx’s early writings to see how his idea is linked with the idea of “distribution of the sensible”. Then, in the light of the idea of “re-distribution of the sensible”, try to explain the political and emancipatory potential of the body in Marx’s mature critique of political economy in Capital and the Grundrisse. The paper shows how reading Marx’s theory of the senses through Ranciére’s can help in unveiling the aesthetic nature of the “mode of production”, specifically, in understanding “the mode of production” as a relation between the economic forces and the senses which, in turn, can turn into other forces. In this paper, the word “aesthetic” is used in the specific sense of sensuous perception.