The Value of Knowledge:
why knowledge has become a commodity, is it inevitable & what can be done about it?

9am - 4pm
Friday 19th Feb.
Old Arts Theatre E,
University of Melbourne

This one-day seminar is concerned with the transformation of knowledge into a commodity at the deepest level. The seminar will investigate a number of themes in parallel:

• The development of the Theory of Knowledge, broadly coincident with the history of the bourgeoisie beginning with the Copernican Revolution around 1600 and ending in the extreme epistemological relativism of some postmodern philosophy.
• The Theory of Value beginning with Adam Smith in the 18th century up to the complexity theorists modelling the economy out of Turing Machines exchanging information.
• The broad periods of development in the capitalist economy over the same period and the nature of value accumulation;
• The correlation between the theories of value and the actual forms of value, and the situation of the theory of value within the dominant epistemological trends of the times;

The situating of recent Liberationist philosophies in struggles over value will set the scene for a consideration of the present crisis. The relationship of the development of Ethics to that of Epistemology will then be the basis for a consideration of how the contemporary commodification of knowledge may be confronted.

Part of University of Melbourne Summer School. To register contact Kathryn Clarke 03 9344 8985.
For further details, you are welcome to contact Andy on 03 9380 XXXX. Use Internet for the Reading material.

Andy Blunden is a member of the National Committee of NTEU, the union representing tertiary education workers, an Enterprise Bargaining negotiator for staff at Mebourne University, and is Teaching Space Consultant for the University. Last year, Andy held a one day seminar "Understanding Hegel's Logic", a program which will be continued with "Significance of Hegel Today" 5 Feb 1999.