Common Turn

Description

James Quilligan:

"This is the Common Turn: when the essential predicates of economic thought are no longer set apart from everyday language and experience, the things of the ordinary world will be present to society both through their interconnectivity (in value) and their particularity (in fact), bringing us back to the experiential world of the commons." (http://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/article-pdfs/toward-a-common-theory-of-value-part-one-common-being.pdf)

Discussion

James Quilligan:

'The first Axial Age led to the inclusive expression of common being through religion, the arts and culture. But it also resulted in the divisive rationality of privatization, property enclosures and utilitarian economics. If a new Axial Age is now dawning, a synthesis must emerge from the unity and division of the past. This new union can emerge only through a new expression of value. Yet we don’t have to cast about looking for it: this value is already here, needing only to be named, understood and practiced. The commons may now be seen, at least in part, as a rediscovery of the principles of freedom and equality which are idealized but imperfectly expressed through modern free markets and state-enforced justice. Unlike the Market State, however, the commons cannot be coordinated by some ultimate authority exercising control through a unified command structure. The commons are a third dynamic—arising from the shared values and meanings of people’s life-experiences—which includes but transcends the market and state." (http://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/article-pdfs/toward-a-common-theory-of-value-part-one-common-being.pdf)