Introduction to critical Marxism

The historical materialist method - Introduction: Life and work of Karl Marx 1. Marx´s Break : The Thesis on Feuerbach A. "Praxis”: Critique of vulgar materialism B. Man's essence. History and society C. "Self-emancipation": how to change the world.

2. Marx's materialist conception of History. 1859 Prologue and Letters A. Social relations of productions. The new starting point B. The notion of an "economic base" C. The notion of progress in History Ernest Mandel, The Place of Marxism in History, "Appendices": "The Eight Main Periods of the “History” of Marx" and "A Few Events of Marx’s Time", IIRE, Amsterdam, 1983 Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, 1845 Karl Marx A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, "Introduction" (extract), 1843 Karl Marx, Abstract from the Preface of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (extract), 1859 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology (extracts), Also:, 1846 León Trotsky, Ninety Years of the Communist Manifesto, 1937