THE METAPHYSICS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY: SCARCITY, EXCESS AND SIMULATION

Author: Dr. Mehdi Morchid

ABSTRACT

This article explores a decisive shift in the metaphysics of political economy, from Adam Smith’s grounding of economic life in scarcity, accumulation and productive labour, to Georges Bataille’s reorientation around excess, expenditure and the sacred, to finally Jean Baudrillard’s critique of consumer society as a regime of simulated expenditure. Smith’s metaphysics of scarcity presupposes that individuals are not self-sufficient. They are compelled to labour productively and are bound together through exchange. Bataille, by contrast, locates the ontological ground of existence in excess, symbolised by the sun’s superabundant energy. He insists that societies must expend this surplus through ritual, sacrifice and spectacle. Baudrillard builds on Bataille’s insights, showing how late capitalism represses sacred expenditure, commodifies eroticism and death and traps excess in endless cycles of sign-value. By juxtaposing these metaphysical orientations, the article illuminates divergent understandings of value, morality and social order.

Keywords: Metaphysics of Economy, Adam Smith, Georges Bataille, Jean Baudrillard, The Wealth of Nations, The Accursed Share, The Consumer Society, Political Economy, Social Order, Scarcity, Excess.

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