The Triumph of Venus: The Erotics of the Market / Edition 1

by Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder

Overview

The theory of law and economics that dominates American jurisprudence today views the market as rational and individuals as driven by the desire to increase their wealth. It is a view riddled with misconceptions, as Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder demonstrates in this challenging work, which looks at contemporary debates in legal theory through the lens of psychoanalysis and continental philosophy. Through metaphors drawn from classical mythology and interpreted via Lacanian psychoanalysis and Hegelian philosophy, Schroeder exposes the hidden and repressed erotics of the market. Her work shows how the predominant economic analysis of markets and the standard romantic critique of markets are in fact mirror images, reflecting the misconception that reason and passion are inalterably opposed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520234314
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/23/2004
Series:	Philosophy, Social Theory, and the Rule of Law , #10
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1240L (what's this?)

About the Author

Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder is Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. She is the author of The Vestal and the Fasces: Hegel, Lacan, Property, and the Feminine (California, 1998).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Juno Moneta

Chapter 1. Pandora's Amphora: The Eroticism of Contract and Gift
Prologue: The Myth of Allgifts
The Nature of Gift
Gift as Potlatch
The Eroticism of the Market
Commodification and Relationship
Epilogue: Pandora's Gift

Chapter 2. Orpheus's Desire: The End of the Market
Prologue: Orpheus and Eurydice, Eros and Thanatos
The Desire of Economics
The Perfect Market
The Perfect Market as the End of the Actual Market

Chapter 3. Narcissus's Death: The Calabresi-Melamed Trichotomy
Prologue: Narcissus
Viewing the Cathedral; Seeing the Feminine
Three's a Crowd: The Calabresi and Melamed Trichotomy
Six Hypotheticals
Property
Procedural and Substantive Critiques of the Calabresi and Melamed Trichotomy
Conclusion: The Masculine Phallic Metaphor

Chapter 4. The Midas Touch: The Lethal Effect of Wealth Maximization
Prologue: The Golden Touch
Defining Wealth
The Denial of Enjoyment
Lacan avec Posner
Epilogue: The Ass's Ears

Chapter 5. The Eumenides' Return: The Founding of Law Through the Repression of the Feminine
Prologue: The Deus ex Machina
The Erinyes
The Law's Necessary Repression of the Feminine
Epilogue: The Birth of Venus

Index