Introduction to Marx's thought and method

Aims:

• Methodological introduction to the School
  
• Presentation of some general problems of Marxist thought
  
• What is Marx's materialism?

Marx's break: The Thesis on Feuerbach

Introduction: Marx as an historical figure

A. "Praxis”: Critique of vulgar materialism
B. Man's essence. History and society
C. "Self-emancipation": how to change the world.

Marx's Historical Materialism. 1859 Prologue and Letters

Introduction: Presentation of the text

A. Social relations of productions. The new starting point
B. The notion of an "economic base"
C. The progress in History

Reading Materials

• 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

• Karl Marx, Capital Volume One, Chapter Seven, Section 1 - The Labour-Process or the Production of Use-Values