Capitalism as negative dialectic: commodity fetishism, digital alienation, and the Anthropocene apocalypse

The study aims to formulate the theoretical foundations for a critical analysis of 21st-century capitalism as a form of negative dialectic, in which social, economic, and ontological contradictions are not overcome, but endlessly reproduced in the form of digital simulacra. In the study, capitalism is viewed not only as an economic model, but also as an all-encompassing ontological regime, colonizing the cognitive, emotional, and biospheric resources of the subject. The article clarifies and adapts to the modern digital reality the concept of “spectral surplus value” (K. Diefenbach), and also introduces the author’s concept of “ecology of abstractions” for the analysis of phenomena of digital exploitation, such as algorithmic control, cryptocurrencies, the gig economy, and neural network platforms. The novelty of the research lies in developing the concept of spectral political economy as a method of critical analysis of capitalism functioning in conditions of digital abstraction. The paper argues that philosophy is capable of counteracting the intensification of digital alienation, transforming the instruments of colonization into means of weakening exploitative structures. As a result, it is substantiated that: 1) modern capitalism functions as a system of epistemological control, displacing the material foundations of production; 2) its crisis is not economic, but cognitive-ontological in nature; 3) the transformation of philosophical tools allows us to identify new forms of commodity fetishism and alienation.