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{.alignnone .wp-image-25176 .size-large width=“960” height=“492”}Summer and Fall/Autumn 2017 – Winter 2018
I. What is the Left?—What is Marxism?
Thursdays, 5:00pm, Kresge Library/Study Center Rm. 348
University of California
[1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064]{}
•[ ]{}required[ ]{}/ * recommended reading
Marx[ ]{}and[ ]{}Engels[ ]{}readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed.,[ ]{}Marx-Engels Reader[ ]{}(Norton 2nd ed., 1978)
[]{#weekA}
Week A. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Aug. 10, 2017
Whoever dares undertake to establish a people’s institutions must feel himself capable of changing, as it were, human nature, of transforming each individual, who by himself is a complete and solitary whole, into a part of a larger whole, from which, in a sense, the individual receives his life and his being, of substituting a limited and mental existence for the physical and independent existence. He has to take from man his own powers, and give him in exchange alien powers which he cannot employ without the help of other men.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau,[ ]{}On the Social Contract[ ]{}(1762)
• Max[ ]{}Horkheimer,[ ]{}“The little man and the philosophy of freedom”[ ]{}(1926–31)
• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James[ ]{}Miller[ ]{}(on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis[ ]{}Menand[ ]{}(on Edmund Wilson), Karl[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}on “becoming”[ ]{}(from the[ ]{}Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter[ ]{}Preuss[ ]{}(on Nietzsche)
Rainer Maria Rilke,[ ]{}“Archaic Torso of Apollo”[ ]{}(1908)
Robert Pippin,[ ]{}“On Critical Theory”[ ]{}(2004)
• Jean-Jacques[ ]{}Rousseau,[ ]{}Discourse on the Origin of Inequality[ ]{}(1754)[ ]{}PDFs[ ]{}of preferred translation (5 parts):[ ]{}[1[ ]{}[2[ ]{}[3[ ]{}[4[ ]{}[5
•[ ]{}Rousseau,[ ]{}selection[ ]{}from[ ]{}On the Social Contract[ ]{}(1762)
[]{#weekB}
Week B. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Hegel: Freedom in history | Aug. 17, 2017
• G.W.F.[ ]{}Hegel,[ ]{}Introduction to the Philosophy of History[ ]{}(1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128] [Audiobook]
[]{#weekC}
Week C. Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Nietzsche (1): Life in history | Aug. 24, 2017
• Friedrich[ ]{}Nietzsche,[ ]{}On the Use and Abuse of History for Life[ ]{}(1874) [translator’s introduction by Peter Preuss]
+[ ]{}Nietzsche on history chart of terms
[]{#weekD}
Week D. Radical bourgeois philosophy IV. Nietzsche (2): Asceticism of moderns | Aug. 31, 2017
+[ ]{}Human, All Too Human: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil[ ]{}(1999)
•[ ]{}Nietzsche,[ ]{}selection[ ]{}from[ ]{}On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense[ ]{}(1873)
•[ ]{}Nietzsche,[ ]{}On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic[ ]{}(1887)
[]{#weekE}
Week E. 1960s New Left I. Neo-Marxism | Sep. 7, 2017 U.S. Labor Day weekend
• Martin[ ]{}Nicolaus,[ ]{}“The unknown Marx”[ ]{}(1968)
+[ ]{}Commodity form chart of terms
• Moishe[ ]{}Postone,[ ]{}“Necessity, labor, and time”[ ]{}(1978)
[• Theodor W. ]{}Adorno[, ]{}“Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?“){#m_-7103011019289392343yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1504014601408_32132}[ (1968)]{}
Postone,[ ]{}“History and helplessness: Mass mobilization and contemporary forms of anticapitalism”[ ]{}(2006)
Postone,[ ]{}“Theorizing the contemporary world: Brenner, Arrighi, Harvey”[ ]{}(2006)
[]{#weekF}
Week F. 1960s New Left II. Gender and sexuality | Sep. 14, 2017
• Juliet[ ]{}Mitchell,[ ]{}“Women: The longest revolution”[ ]{}(1966)
• Clara[ ]{}Zetkin[ ]{}and Vladimir[ ]{}Lenin,[ ]{}“An interview on the woman question”[ ]{}(1920)
• Theodor W.[ ]{}Adorno,[ ]{}“Sexual taboos and the law today”[ ]{}(1963)
• John[ ]{}D’Emilio,[ ]{}“Capitalism and gay identity”[ ]{}(1983)
[]{#weekG}
Week G. 1960s New Left III. Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Sep. 21, 2017
• Richard[ ]{}Fraser,[ ]{}“Two lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationism”[ ]{}(1953)
• James[ ]{}Robertson[ ]{}and Shirley[ ]{}Stoute,[ ]{}“For black Trotskyism”[ ]{}(1963)
Spartacist League,[ ]{}“Black and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedom”[ ]{}(1966)
Bayard Rustin,[ ]{}“The failure of black separatism”[ ]{}(1970)
• Adolph[ ]{}Reed,[ ]{}“Black particularity reconsidered”[ ]{}(1979)
- Reed,[ ]{}“Paths to Critical Theory”[ ]{}(1984)
[]{#week1}
Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Sep. 28, 2017
• Max[ ]{}Horkheimer,[ ]{}“The little man and the philosophy of freedom”[ ]{}(1926–31)
• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis[ ]{}Menand[ ]{}(on Marx and Engels) and Karl[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}on “becoming”[ ]{}(from the[ ]{}Grundrisse, 1857–58)
• Chris[ ]{}Cutrone,[ ]{}“Capital in history”[ ]{}(2008)
+[ ]{}Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+[ ]{}video of Communist University 2011 London presentation
•[ ]{}Cutrone,[ ]{}“The Marxist hypothesis”[ ]{}(2010)
[]{#week2}
Week 2. What is the Left? II. Bourgeois society | Oct. 5, 2017
• Immanuel[ ]{}Kant,[ ]{}“Idea for a universal history from a cosmopolitan point of view”[ ]{}and[ ]{}“What is Enlightenment?”[ ]{}(1784)
• Benjamin[ ]{}Constant,[ ]{}“The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns”[ ]{}(1819)
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau,[ ]{}Discourse on the origin of inequality[ ]{}(1754)
+ Rousseau,[ ]{}selection[ ]{}from[ ]{}On the social contract[ ]{}(1762)
[]{#week3}
Week 3. What is the Left? III. Failure of Marxism | Oct. 12, 2017
• Max[ ]{}Horkheimer,[ ]{}selections from[ ]{}Dämmerung[ ]{}(1926–31)
•[ ]{}Adorno,[ ]{}“Imaginative Excesses”[ ]{}(1944–47)
[]{#week4}
Week 4. What is the Left? IV. Utopia and critique | Oct. 19, 2017
• Leszek[ ]{}Kolakowski,[ ]{}“The concept of the Left”[ ]{}(1968)
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}To make the world philosophical[ ]{}(from Marx’s dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}For the ruthless criticism of everything existing[ ]{}(letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15
[]{#week5}
Week 5. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Oct. 26, 2017
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}selections from[ ]{}Economic and philosophic manuscripts[ ]{}(1844), pp. 70–101
+[ ]{}Commodity form chart of terms
•[ ]{}Marx[ ]{}and Friedrich[ ]{}Engels,[ ]{}selections[ ]{}from the[ ]{}Manifesto of the Communist Party[ ]{}(1848), pp. 469-500
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League[ ]{}(1850), pp. 501–511
[]{#week6}
Week 6. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 2, 2017
•[ ]{}Marx, The coming upheaval (from[ ]{}The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847) and Class struggle and mode of production (letter to Weydemeyer, 1852), pp. 218-220
•[ ]{}Engels,[ ]{}The tactics of social democracy[ ]{}(Engels’s 1895 introduction to Marx,[ ]{}The Class Struggles in France), pp. 556–573
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}selections[ ]{}from[ ]{}The Class Struggles in France 1848–50[ ]{}(1850), pp. 586–593
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}selections[ ]{}from[ ]{}The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte[ ]{}(1852), pp. 594–617
[]{#week7}
Week 7. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Nov. 9, 2017
- Karl Korsch,[ ]{}“The Marxism of the First International”[ ]{}(1924)
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}Inaugural address to the First International[ ]{}(1864), pp. 512–519
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}selections[ ]{}from[ ]{}The Civil War in France[ ]{}(1871, including[ ]{}Engels’s 1891 Introduction), pp. 618–652
- Korsch,[ ]{}Introduction to Marx,[ ]{}Critique of the Gotha Programme[ ]{}(1922)
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525–541
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}Programme of the Parti Ouvrier[ ]{}(1880)
[]{#week8}
Week 8. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Nov. 16, 2017
+[ ]{}Commodity form chart of terms
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}selections from the[ ]{}Grundrisse[ ]{}(1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 276–293[ ]{}ME Reader[ ]{}pp. 276-281
•[ ]{}Marx,[ ]{}Capital[ ]{}Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 “The fetishism of commodities”[ ]{}(1867), pp. 319–329
[]{#week9}
Week 9. Nov. 25, 2017 U.S. Thanksgiving break
[]{#week10}
Week 10. What is Marxism? V. Reification | Nov. 30, 2017
• Georg[ ]{}Lukács,[ ]{}“The phenomenon of reification”[ ]{}(Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,”[ ]{}History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
+[ ]{}Commodity form chart of terms
[]{#winterreadings}
Winter break readings
Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z,[ ]{}Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners[ ]{}(1977)
Sebastian Haffner,[ ]{}Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19[ ]{}(1968)
Edmund Wilson,[ ]{}To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History[ ]{}(1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6
Tariq Ali and Phil Evans,[ ]{}Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners[ ]{}(1980)
James Joll,[ ]{}The Second International 1889–1914[ ]{}(1966)
[]{#week11}
Week 11. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Dec. 7, 2017 / Jan. 13, 2018
•[ ]{}Lukács,[ ]{}Original Preface[ ]{}(1922),[ ]{}“What is Orthodox Marxism?”[ ]{}(1919),[ ]{}“Class Consciousness”[ ]{}(1920),[ ]{}History and Class Consciousness[ ]{}(1923)
- Marx,[ ]{}Preface to the First German Edition[ ]{}and[ ]{}Afterword to the Second German Edition[ ]{}(1873) of[ ]{}Capital[ ]{}(1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302
[]{#week12}
Week 12. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Dec. 14, 2017 / Jan. 20, 2018
•[ ]{}Korsch,[ ]{}“Marxism and philosophy”[ ]{}(1923)
Marx,[ ]{}To make the world philosophical[ ]{}(from Marx’s dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
Marx,[ ]{}For the ruthless criticism of everything existing[ ]{}(letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15
Marx,[ ]{}“Theses on Feuerbach”[ ]{}(1845), pp. 143–145
[]{#winter-spring2018}