Introduction to critical Marxism

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

• John Bellamy Foster, The Return of Engels, 2017

• León Trotsky, Ninety Years of the Communist Manifesto, 1937