
Wednesdays
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Van Pelt Library
Class of '68 Seminar Room
(map)
New attendants encouraged.
Direct questions to bkosko@sass.upenn.edu
I. What is the Left? â What is Marxism?
⢠required / + recommended reading
Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)
Week F. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Sep. 4, 2019
Whoever dares undertake to establish a peopleâs 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.
â Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)
⢠Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926â31)
⢠epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857â58), and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)
+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)
+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
⢠Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754) PDFs of preferred translation (5 parts): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
⢠Rousseau, selection from On the Social Contract (1762)
Week G. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Adam Smith: On the wealth of nations (part 1) | Sep. 11, 2019
⢠Adam Smith, selections from The Wealth of Nations
Volume I [PDF]
Introduction and Plan of the Work
Book I: Of the Causes of ImprovementâŚ
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) | Sep. 18, 2019
⢠Smith, selections from The Wealth of Nations
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? | Sep. 25, 2019
⢠AbbÊ Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, What is the Third Estate? (1789)
+ Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees (1732)
Week J. Radical bourgeois philosophy V. Kant and Constant: Bourgeois society | Oct. 2, 2019
⢠Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a universal history from a cosmopolitan point of view" and "What is Enlightenment?" (1784)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
⢠Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns" (1819)
+ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the origin of inequality (1754)
+ Rousseau, selection from On the social contract (1762)
Week K. Radical bourgeois philosophy VI. Hegel: Freedom in history | Oct. 9, 2019
⢠G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128] [Audiobook]
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Oct. 16, 2019
Whoever dares undertake to establish a peopleâs 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.
â Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)
⢠Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926â31)
⢠epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857â58), and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)
+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)
+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
⢠Chris Cutrone, "Capital in history" (2008)
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ video of Communist University 2011 London presentation
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
⢠Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis" (2010)
⢠Cutrone, âClass consciousness (from a Marxist persective) todayâ
+ G.M. Tamas, "Telling the truth about class" [HTML] (2007)
Week 2. What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique | Oct. 23, 2019
⢠Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926â31)
⢠Adorno, âImaginative Excessesâ (1944â47)
⢠Leszek Kolakowski, âThe concept of the Leftâ (1968)
⢠Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839â41), pp. 9â11
⢠Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12â15
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 3. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Oct. 30, 2019
⢠Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844), pp. 70â101
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
⢠Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469-500
⢠Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850), pp. 501â511
Week 4. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 6, 2019
⢠Marx, The coming upheaval (from The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847) and Class struggle and mode of production (letter to Weydemeyer, 1852), pp. 218-220
⢠Engels, The tactics of social democracy (Engels's 1895 introduction to Marx, The Class Struggles in France), pp. 556â573
⢠Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848â50 (1850), pp. 586â593
⢠Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594â617
Week 5. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Nov. 13, 2019
+ Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)
⢠Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512â519
⢠Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618â652
+ Korsch, Introduction to Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)
⢠Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525â541
⢠Marx, Programme of the Parti Ouvrier (1880)
Week 6. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Nov. 20, 2019
The fetish character of the commodity is not a fact of consciousness; rather it is dialectical, in the eminent sense that it produces consciousness. . . . [P]erfection of the commodity character in a Hegelian self-consciousness inaugurates the explosion of its phantasmagoria.
â Theodor W. Adorno, letter to Walter Benjamin, August 2, 1935
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
⢠Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857â61), pp. 222â226, 236â244, 247â250, 276â293 ME Reader pp. 276-281
⢠Marx, Capital Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319â329
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 7. 2019 U.S. Thanksgiving break | Nov. 27, 2019
⢠Georg LukĂĄcs, âThe phenomenon of reificationâ (Part I of âReification and the consciousness of the proletariat,â History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Winter break readings
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918â19 (1968)
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1â4,) 5â10, 12â16; Part III. Ch. 1â6
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889â1914 (1966)
Week 8. What is Marxism? V. Reification | Dec. 4, 2019
⢠Georg LukĂĄcs, âThe phenomenon of reificationâ (Part I of âReification and the consciousness of the proletariat,â History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 9. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Dec. 11, 2019
⢠LukĂĄcs, âClass Consciousnessâ (1920), Original Preface (1922), âWhat is Orthodox Marxism?â (1919), History and Class Consciousness (1923)
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294â298, 299â302
Week 10. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Dec. 18, 2019
⢠Korsch, âMarxism and philosophyâ (1923)
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839â41), pp. 9â11
+ Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12â15
+ Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), pp. 143â145
Winter break readings
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918â19 (1968)
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1â4,) 5â10, 12â16; Part III. Ch. 1â6
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889â1914 (1966)
WinterâSpring 2020
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
The Russian Revolution, which Lenin held up as the torch-light of emancipation for the world proletariat, is being run into national socialist channels. . . . âThe Russian proletariat,â said Lenin, âcannot single-handed bring the socialist revolution to a victorious conclusion. But it can give the Russian revolution a mighty impetus such as would create most favorable conditions for a socialist revolution, and would, in a sense, start it. It can help to create more favorable circumstances for its most important, most trustworthy and most reliable collaborator, the European and American proletariat, to join the decisive battlesâ (âFarewell letter to the Swiss workers,â 1917).
Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Philadelphia
Video will be broadcast live and available as recordings at: http://www.livestream.com/platypusaffiliatedsociety
Saturdays 1â4PM CST
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920
Chicago Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/140497572752262/
Saturdays 2â5PM EST
The New School
6 E. 16th St. (between Union Square West and 5th Ave.) room 1001
⢠recommended / + supplemental reading
Recommended preliminary readings:
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ Nicolas KrassĂł, âTrotskyâs Marxismâ (1967)
⢠Platypus Historians Group, âThe dead Left: Trotskyismâ (2008)
⢠Richard Rubin, âThe decline of the Left in the 20th century: 1933âł (2009)
⢠Ian Morrison, âTrotskyâs Marxismâ (2011)
⢠Mike Macnair, Bryan Palmer, Richard Rubin, and Jason Wright, âThe legacy of Trotskyismâ (2011)
⢠Grover Furr, âLearning from the Communist Movement of the 20th century: A response to Richard Rubinâ(2012)
+ Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1978)
+ Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet: Trotsky biography (three volumes: 1954, 1959, 1963)
Week 1. Jun. 16, 2012
1879â1905
lecture: video recording | audio recording
⢠Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
⢠Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
Week 2. Jun. 23, 2012
1905â17
lecture: video recording [glitches after ~32:00] | audio recording [without glitches]
+ Trotsky, 1905 (1907)
Week 3. Jun. 30, 2012
1917â23
lecture: video recording | audio recording
⢠Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism (1920)
⢠Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
+ Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (1924)
+ Bret Schneider, âTrotskyâs theory of artâ (2011)
Week 4. Jul. 7, 2012
1923â33
lecture: video recording | audio recording
+ Trotsky, Where is Britain Going? (1925)
+ Trotsky, Problems of the Chinese Revolution 1927â31 (1932)
+ Trotsky, writings on the rise of Hitler and the destruction of the German Left (1930â40), especially âTo build communist parties and an international anewâ (1933)
Week 5. Jul. 14, 2012
1933â40
lecture: video recording | audio recording
⢠Trotsky, âStalinism and Bolshevismâ (1937)
⢠Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (1938)
+ Trotsky, âTrade unions in the epoch of imperialist decayâ (1940)
+ Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed (1936)
+ Trotsky, In Defense of Marxism (1939/40), especially âLetter to James Cannonâ (September 12, 1939)
+ Trotsky, âArt and politics on our epochâ (1938)
+ Mary McCarthy, âMy Confessionâ (1954)
Week 6. Jul. 21, 2012
1940â53
lecture: video recording | audio recording
+ James Cannon, âThe coming American revolutionâ (1946)
+ C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, et al., âProgram of the minority tendency of the Workers Party/U.S.â (1946)
+ C.L.R. James, âDialectical materialism and the fate of humanityâ (1947)
+ Herbert Marcuse, â33 Thesesâ (1947)
+ Earl Browder and Max Shachtman with C. Wright Mills, âIs Russia a socialist community?â (1950)
+ Ernest Mandel, âThe theory of âstate capitalismââ (1951)
+ Michel Pablo, âOn the duration and the nature of the period of transition from capitalism to socialismâ (1951)
+ Pablo, âWhere are we going?â (1953)
Week 7. Jul. 28, 2012
1953â63
lecture: video recording [ends ~4:00 prematurely] | audio recording [complete]
+ Cornelius Castoriadis, âThe workers and organizationâ (1959)
⢠Cliff Slaughter, âWhat is revolutionary leadership?â (1960)
⢠Revolutionary Tendency of the Socialist Workers Party/U.S., âIn defense of a revolutionary perspectiveâ(1962)
+ Tony Cliff, âThe coming Russian revolutionâ (final chapter of Russia: A Marxist Analysis, 1964)
+ Hal Draper, âThe two souls of socialismâ (1966)
+ Isaac Deutscher, âMarxism in our timeâ (1965)
+ Murray Bookchin, âListen, Marxist!â (1969)
⢠Spartacist League, âGenesis of Pabloismâ (1972)
2012â13
Primary Marxist reading group
I. What is the Left? â What is Marxism?
⢠required / + recommended reading
Week A. Aug. 4, 2012
⢠epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx, on âbecomingâ (from the Grundrisse, 1857â58), and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)
+ Rainer Maria Rilke, âArchaic Torso of Apolloâ (1908)
+ Robert Pippin, âOn Critical Theoryâ (2004)
⢠Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754) PDFs of preferred translation (5 parts):[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
⢠Rousseau, selection from On the Social Contract (1762)
Week B. Aug. 11, 2012
⢠G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128]
Week C. Aug. 18, 2012
⢠Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life (1874) [translator's introduction by Peter Preuss]
Week D. Aug. 25, 2012
⢠Nietzsche, selection from On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
⢠Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)
Week E. Sep. 1, 2012 Labor Day weekend
⢠Martin Nicolaus, âThe unknown Marxâ (1968)
⢠Moishe Postone, âNecessity, labor, and timeâ (1978)
⢠Postone, âHistory and helplessness: Mass mobilization and contemporary forms of anticapitalismâ (2006)
+ Postone, âTheorizing the contemporary world: Brenner, Arrighi, Harveyâ (2006)
Week F. Sep. 8, 2012
⢠Juliet Mitchell, âWomen: The longest revolutionâ (1966)
⢠Clara Zetkin and Vladimir Lenin, âAn interview on the woman questionâ (1920)
⢠Theodor W. Adorno, âSexual taboos and the law todayâ (1963)
⢠John DâEmilio, âCapitalism and gay identityâ (1983)
Week G. Sep. 15, 2012
⢠Richard Fraser, âTwo lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationismâ (1953)
⢠James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, âFor black Trotskyismâ (1963)
+ Spartacist League, âBlack and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedomâ (1966)
+ Bayard Rustin, âThe failure of black separatismâ (1970)
⢠Adolph Reed, âBlack particularity reconsideredâ (1979)
+ Reed, âPaths to Critical Theoryâ (1984)
Week H. Sep. 22, 2012
⢠Wilhelm Reich, âIdeology as material powerâ (1933/46)
⢠Siegfried Kracauer, âThe mass ornamentâ (1927)
+ Kracauer, âPhotographyâ (1927)
Week 1. Sep. 29, 2012
⢠Chris Cutrone, âCapital in historyâ (2008)
⢠Cutrone, âThe Marxist hypothesisâ (2010)
September 21 â November 30
Wednesdays 6:30PM at:
Saxbyâs Coffee @ Temple University
1902 Liacouras Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the âLeftâ? / What is âMarxismâ?
Platypus is a project for the self-criticism, self-education, and, ultimately, the practical reconstitution of a Marxian Left. At present the Marxist Left appears as a historical ruin. The received wisdom of today dictates that past, failed attempts at emancipation stand not as moments full of potential yet to be redeemed, but rather as âwhat wasâ â utopianism that was bound to end in tragedy. As critical inheritors of a vanquished tradition, Platypus contends that â after the failure of the 1960s New Left, and the dismantlement of the welfare state and the destruction of the Soviet Union in the 1980s-90s â the present disorientation of the Left means we can hardly claim to know the tasks and goals of social emancipation better than the âutopiansâ of the past did.
In the face of the catastrophic past and present, the first task for the reconstitution of a Left as an emancipatory force is to recognize the reasons for the historical failure of human emancipation and to clarify the necessity of a Left for the present and future. â If the Left is to change the world, it must first transform itself!
The improbable â but not impossible â reconstitution of an emancipatory Left is an urgent task; we believe that the future of humanity depends on it. While the devastating forces unleashed by modern society â capitalism â remain, the unfulfilled promise of social emancipation still calls for redemption. To abdicate this or to obscure the gravity of past defeats and failures by looking to âresistanceâ from âoutsideâ the dynamics of modern society is to affirm its present and guarantee its future destructive reality.
What has the Left been, and what can it yet become?
Schedule
September 21
⢠Cutrone, âSymptomology: Historical transformations in social-political contextâ
⢠Cutrone, âCapital in history: The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Leftâ
September 28
⢠Kolakowski, âThe concept of the Leftâ
⢠Adorno, âImaginative excessesâ
October 5
⢠Blumberg, Cutrone, Khan, Leonard, and Rubin, Forum: The decline of the Left in the 20th century
October 12
⢠Anderson, Cutrone, Kreitman, Postel, and Turl, Forum: Imperialism: What is it, why should we be against it?
⢠Albert, Cutrone, Duncombe, and Holmes, Forum: The 3 Rs: reform, revolution and âresistance:â The problematic forms of âanti-capitalismâ today
October 19
⢠Brennan, Davis, Hendricks, Mujica, and Rubin, Forum: What is a movement?
⢠Hendricks, Hughes, Mwaura, and Thindwa, Forum: Left behind: The working class in the crisis
October 26
⢠Platypus Historians Group, Catastrophe, historical memory, and the Left: 60 years of Israel-Palestine
⢠Ibish, Kovel, and Rubin, Forum: Which way forward for Palestinian liberation?
⢠Goodman and Rubin, Forum: Marxism and Israel
November 2
⢠Farrow, Gabrellas, Mucciaroni, and Wolf, Forum: Which way forward for sexual liberation?
⢠Nogales, Pereira Di Salvo, and Rojas, Forum: Politics of the contemporary student Left
⢠Brennan, Klatt, Petcoff, and Weger, Forum: Ideology and the student Left
November 9
⢠Bernstein, Cutrone, Goehr, and Horowitz, Forum: The relevance of Critical Theory to art today
⢠Cutrone, Feenberg, Westerman, and Brown, Platypus convention plenary: The politics of Critical Theory
November 16
⢠Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung
⢠Adorno, âResignationâ
⢠Cutrone, âThe Marxist hypothesisâ
⢠Cutrone, âThe Left is dead! â Long live the Left!â Vicissitudes of historical consciousness and the possibilities for emancipatory social politics today
November 30
⢠Cutrone, Morrison, and Rubin, Platypus convention plenary: The Platypus synthesis: History, theory, and practice