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Karl Marx

Readings - Autumn 2005

Don Skiles

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 A note on reading Marx:  Marx is not a writer to be read hurriedly, or quickly.  Give yourself time with him, and make notes on what you don’t understand, etc.  Our goal is to arrive at some understanding of Marx’s major ideas/theories, and their extensions today.

 TEXT: The Marx-Engels Reader (Second Edition), edited by Robert C. Tucker, Norton, 1978.

  Schedules of Readings/Discussions:

 Monday  9-15:    Introduction to Marx.  Please read:  “Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx”, 681-2 (Engels);   “Working Class Manchester”   579-85 (Engels)“; Capital, Vol. 1  367-72 407-; “The Meaning of Human Requirements”, 93-101

Wednesday, 9-17:  Key ideas in Marx; review. questions, discussion. ; “Estranged Labor”, 71-5;

“For A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing”, 12-5;  from Capital,  “Preface to the First German Edition”, 294-8; 372-76, 408-11, 429-31.

Friday, 9-19:  Readings:  Engels, The Origin of Family, Private Property, and State, 737-51.

Monday, 9-22:  Readings;  From Manifesto of the Communist Party, 473-91. Guest Lecturer in first Hour; economist Jaime Flores.

Wednesday, 9-24:  Conclusions:  Marx and Marxism in today’s world, and summary.

Essay Questions:

Your essay must be on one of the topics below concerning Marx, or Marx/Machiavelli.  No essays only on Machiavelli.  The essay draft is due in your small group by Wednesday October 8.  The final essay is due Monday, October 13.

1. Choose a major theme in Marx’s writings – class struggle, private property, estranged labor, the direction of history, Utopianism – and write an essay explicating that idea (i.e., what does Marx see/indicate as the ramifications of his theory?)
2. Many have argued that the real significance of Marx is that he presents a moral critique of capitalism.  In your essay, indicate some ways he does this.
3. What are Marx’s and Engels’ views on women?  How do we know this?
4. Describe how Marx sees Communism as a future solution to what Marx views as the ills of capitalism.
5. Explain:  Labor creates the worker as a commodity.
6. What constitutes the alienation of labor/work, as Marx describes it in his theory?
7. Marx was an atheist, but also a humanist. How is this possible?  Demonstrate from his writings and arguments.
8. What is Marx’s concept of human nature?  Was it similar to Engels’ or Machiavelli’s? Why is such an assumption so important?
9. Explore some of the ideas shared by Marx and Engels.  Possibilities include private property, division of labor and force of History.
10. Explore Marx’s or Engels’ sympathy for the downtrodden.
11. Contrast Machiavelli’s sympathy for the downtrodden to that of Engels and Marx.
12. Many refer to Machiavelli as a realist and Marx as a Utopian.  What would be the basis of these descriptions in their writings?
13. In theManifesto, Marx calls for the abolition of all private property.  Why does Marx place such emphasis on private property? Why does he argue for its abolishment?
14. In your essay, discuss some important contemporary political and social ideas traceable to the thought of Marx and Machiavelli.
     

Online Resources:

Fonseca. G. & Ussher, L. (2001) Karl Marx. The History of Economic Thought. Available online:  http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/marx.htm

Kreis, S. (2000) Karl Marx.  The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. Available online: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html

Marx and Engels' Writings (2003). eserver.org. Available online at: http://eserver.org/marx/