What is the Left? What is Marxism?


  • * required / • recommended reading

Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)

Week A. Introduction: Capital in history

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)

Week B. 1960s New Left I. Neo-Marxism | Aug. 4, 2018

Week C. 1960s New Left II: Gender and sexuality

Week D. 1960s New Left III. Anti-black racism in the U.S.

Week E. Frankfurt School precursors

Week F. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society

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)

Week G. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Adam Smith: On the wealth of nations (part 1)

*** *** Adam Smith, selections from The Wealth of Nations

**Volume I [PDF]** Introduction and Plan of the Work Book I: Of the Causes of Improvement… I.1. Of the Division of Labor I.2. Of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division of Labour I.3. That the Division of Labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market I.4. Of the Origin and Use of Money I.6. Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities I.7. Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities I.8. Of the Wages of Labour I.9. Of the Profits of Stock Book III: Of the different Progress of Opulence in different Nations III.1. Of the Natural Progress of Opulence III.2. Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the Ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire III.3. Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, after the Fall of the Roman Empire III.4. How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country

Week H. Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Adam Smith: On the wealth of nations (part 2)

Volume II [PDF] IV.7. Of Colonies Book V: Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth V.1. Of the Expences of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

Week I. Radical bourgeois philosophy IV. What is the Third Estate?

Week J. Radical bourgeois philosophy V. Kant and Constant: Bourgeois society

Week K. Radical bourgeois philosophy VI. Hegel: Freedom in history

Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history

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)

Week 2. What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique

Week 3. What is Marxism? I. Socialism

Week 4. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 3, 2018

Week 5. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism

Week 6. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy

Week 7. What is Marxism? V. Reification

Week 8. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness

Week 9. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy

Winter break readings

Winter–Spring 2019

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism