(• required readings / + supplemental readings)

Liberal and socialist reading on late liberalism and early socialism:

Louis Blanc, History of the Ten Years 1830-1840 (1842)

Benjamin Constant, Liberty of the Ancients and Moderns Compared (1819)

Émile Durkheim, Saint-Simon and Socialism (1895-96)

Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England (Labour Movement) [1845]

Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Utopian Socialism) [1880]*

G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1822-31)

Georgi Plekhanov, “Utopian Socialism in the Nineteenth Century” (1913)*

Plekhanov, The Initial Phases of the Theory of the Class Struggle — An Introduction to the Second Edition of the Russian translation of the Communist Manifesto (1898)

Background (secondary) reading on late liberalism and early socialism: 

Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 (1962)

George Lichtheim, Origins of Socialism (1969)

Joseph Seymour (Spartacist), “Marxism and the Jacobin Socialist Tradition” (1976)

Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station (1940) 

Week 1 6/7/25: Babeuf and Jacobin socialism

• Sylvain Maréchal, (1796) "Manifesto of the Equals" 

• Philippe Buonarroti, History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality (1828/36) selections: "Biographical Sketch of Buonarroti", "To the Reader", "Author's Preface", Part I pp. 88-232

Supplemental:

+ French Republic Constitution of 1793

+ Buonarroti, History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality (1828/1836), Part I pp. 1-87, Part II

+ Gracchus Babeuf, (1797) The Defense of Gracchus Babeuf before the High Court of Vendôme

+ Auguste Blanqui, (1832) “Speech before the Society of the Friends of the People”

+ Blanqui, (1849) "To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!"

Week 2 6/14/25: Henri de Saint-Simon

• Henri Saint-Simon, Social Organisation, the Science of Man, and Other Writings (1803-25)

Week 3 6/21/25: Charles Fourier

• Charles Fourier, Selections TBD

Week 4 6/28/25: Robert Owen

• Robert Owen, A New View of Society and Other Writings (“A New View,” “Address to the Inhabitants,” “Observations on the Effects,” “To the British Manufacturer,” “Address to the Working Class,” and “Catechism”)
• Declaration of Mental Independence

Secondary reading:

+ William Benbow, Grand National Holiday (1832)

Week 5 7/5/25: Left Ricardian socialism and Chartism

• Thomas Hodgskin, Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital (1825)
• Chartist Writings, Selection (1833-55) 

Supplemental:

+ Charles Wentworth Dilke, The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties

+ Bronterre O’Brien, Progress of Human Slavery (1849-50) (Chapter I, VII, and XV to end)

+ Thomas Carlyle, Chartism (Chapters 1 & 9)

Week 6 7/12/25: Young Hegelian communism and Chartism

• August von Cjezkowski, Arnold Ruge, and Edgar Bauer (1841-44)
• Moses Hess, “Socialism and Communism,” “A Communist Credo,” and “Consequences of a Revolution of the Proletariat” (1843-47)

Week 7 7/19/25: Democracy and socialism

• Victor Considerant, The Principles of Socialism: Manifesto of 19th Century Democracy (1847) [selection TBD]

Supplemental:

+ Louis Blanc, Organization of Labor [Selection TBD]

( • required / + recommended readings)

Recommended background reading:
+ J.P. Nettl, "The SPD 1890-1914 as political model" (1965)

Week 1 | June 8, 2024

• Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence (1908/19)
[Priority readings: Letter to Daniel Halevy; Introduction; Chapters 2, 4, 5 (complete); final section of Chapter 6 (section IV); final section of Chapter 7 (section V); Appendix III: In Defense of Lenin]
+ Sorel, "The decomposition of Marxism" [pp. 211-254] (1908)

Week 2 | June 15, 2024

• Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (1932) including + "The age of neutralizations and depoliticizations" (1929)
+ Schmitt, "Political theology" Chapter 3 of Political Theology (1922/34)
+ Schmitt, Chapters 3-6 of Dictatorship (1921)
+ Schmitt, "Dictatorship in Marxist thought" Chapter 3 of The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy (1923/26)
(+ Walter Benjamin, "Critique of violence" [updated translation from Selected Writings], 1921)

Week 3 | June 22, 2024

• James Burnham, The Managerial Revolution (1941)
[Priority readings: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 pp. 99-109, Chapter 9 pp. 119-126, 135-138, Chapter 10 pp. 143-151, Chapter 11 pp. 160-171, Chapter 13]

Week 4 | June 29, 2024

• Burnham, The Machiavellians (1943)
[Priority readings: Part I Section 3, Parts II, III, VI, VII]

Week 5 | July 6, 2024

• Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (1963)
[Priority readings: Introduction, Chapters 1, 3, 4, 6]

Week 6 | July 13, 2024

• Arendt, On Violence (1969)
+ Arendt, The Human Condition (1958), Prologue, Part I. The Human Condition
+ Arendt, selections from Origins of Totalitarianism (1951/58): Prefaces to First and Second Enlarged Editions; Part Two: Imperialism Chapters 5 and 9; Part Three: Totalitarianism Chapters 10-14 (including Epilogue: Reflections on the Hungarian Revolution)

Week 7 | July 20, 2024

• Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985)

Der Lesekreis soll einen Überblick über das vielbesprochene, aber selten wirklich gelesene Opus magnum von Marx, „das Kapital - Kritik der politischen Ökonomie“, bieten. Um ein Verständnis des Gesamtwerks zu gewinnen, werden Ausschnitte sowohl aus den Grundrissen, dem ersten, dem dritten und dem inoffiziellen vierten Band („Die Theorien über den Mehrwert“) diskutiert. Entgegen der Herangehensweise der sogenannten „Neuen Marx-Lektüre“ soll dabei das „Politische“ nicht vom „Ökonomischen“, das „Frühe“ nicht vom Späten“ und das „Logische“ nicht vom „Historischen“ getrennt werden. Ebenso wenig wollen wir Marx gegen seinen engsten Mitstreiter Friedrich Engels ausspielen. Welche Rolle also nimmt die Kritik der politischen Ökonomie in der Politik von Marx und dem Marxismus ein?

Die Texte werden im Voraus gelesen und dann zusammen diskutiert. Neueinsteiger sind herzlich willkommen und es werden keine Vorkenntnisse benötigt!

Zeit: Mittwochs, 19:00 - 22:00, 9. August - 27. September 2023

Ort: Hedwig Dohm Haus, Ziegelstr. 4, HU Berlin

Weitere Infos über Telegram und andere Kanäle

• vorausgesetzte Texte

+ zusätzlich, empfohlene Texte

Hintergrundlektüre:

+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Marx on surplus-value chart of terms

+ Karl Kautsky (1903): Karl Marx’ Ökonomische Lehren gemeinverständlich dargestellt und erläutert

+ Franz Mehring (1918): Karl Marx - Geschichte seines Lebens

+ David Riazanov (1927): Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: An Introduction to Their Lives and Work

Woche 1.:  Einführung | 9. August

• Karl Marx (1849): Lohnarbeit und Kapital

• Karl Marx, Die kommende Schlacht (aus Das Elend der Philosophie, 1847)

• Karl Marx, Klassenkampf und Produktionsweise (aus dem Brief an Weydemeyer, 1852)

• Wladimir Lenin (1914): Karl Marx. In: Lenin Werke Band 21, S.30-80 (Für die Diskussion vorausgesetzt wird nur das Kapitel „Die Ökonomische Lehre von Marx“)

Woche 2.: Die Grundrisse | 16. August

• Karl Marx (1857): Einleitung zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie

• Karl Marx, Auszüge aus den Grundrisse (1857–61)

Woche 3: Das Kapital (Band 1) Teil 1 | 23. August

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 1. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Vorwort zur ersten und Nachwort zur zweiten Auflage (1867/1873) von Das Kapital Bd. I (1867), Vor- und Nachwort zur französischen Ausgabe (1872), Erster Abschnitt Ware und Geld. Erstes Kapitel: Die Ware., Zweiter Abschnitt. Viertes Kapitel. Die Verwandlung von Geld in Kapital. Nur: Die allgemeine Formel des Kapitals

Woche 4: Das Kapital (Band 1) Teil 2 | 30. August

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 1. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Viertes Kapitel: Der Kauf und Verkauf der Arbeitskraft, Sechstes Kapitel: Konstantes Kapital und variables Kapital, Siebtes Kapitel: Die Rate des Mehrwerts, Achtes Kapitel: Der Arbeitstag

Woche 5: Das Kapital (Band 1) Teil 3 | 6. September

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 1. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Teil 4. Die Produktion des relativen Mehrwerts, Zehntes Kapitel: Begriff des relativen Mehrwerts, Elftes Kapitel: Kooperation, Zwölftes Kapitel: Teilung der Arbeit und Manufaktur (1-5), Dreizehntes Kapitel: Maschinerie und große Industrie (nur Teil 1 und Teil 3)

Woche 6: Das Kapital (Band 1) Teil 4 | 13. September

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 1. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Dreizehntes Kapitel, Teil 4: Die Fabrik, Teil 5: Der Kampf zwischen Arbeiter und Maschine, Teil 9: Fabrikgesetzgebung, Teil 10: Große Industrie und Agrikultur, Vierzehntes Kapitel: Die Produktion des absoluten und relativen Mehrwerts, Dreiundzwanzigstes Kapitel. Das allgemeine Gesetz der kapitalistischen Akkumulation Nur Teil 1, 3 und 4, Vierundzwanzigstes Kapitel. Die sogenannte ursprüngliche Akkumulation: 1. Das Geheimnis der ursprünglichen Akkumulation, 2. Expropriation des Landvolks von Grund und Boden, 6. Genesis des industriellen Kapitalisten, 7. Geschichtliche Tendenz der kapitalistischen Akkumulation

Woche 7: Das Kapital (Band 3) Teil 1 | 20. September

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 1. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Vierundzwanzigstes Kapitel. Die sogenannte ursprüngliche Akkumulation: 1. Das Geheimnis der ursprünglichen Akkumulation, 2. Expropriation des Landvolks von Grund und Boden, 6. Genesis des industriellen Kapitalisten, 7. Geschichtliche Tendenz der kapitalistischen Akkumulation

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 3. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Dritter Abschnitt. Gesetz des tendenziellen Falls der Profitrate, Dreizehntes Kapitel, Vierzehntes Kapitel, Fünfzehntes Kapitel

Woche 8: Das Kapital (Band 3) Teil 2 | 27. September

• Marx: Das Kapital Band 3. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Siebenter Abschnitt. Die Revenuen und ihre Quellen. Die trinitarische Formel, 48., 49., 50. und 51. Kapitel 

• Marx: Die Theorien über den Mehrwert: Kapitel 17.: Abschnitt 8., 9., 10., 11. und 14

( • required / + recommended readings)

Recommended background preliminary readings:
+ Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns" (1819)
+ J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)

Recommended supplemental parallel readings:
+ Chris Cutrone, "The end of the Gilded Age" (2017) and "Gilded Age socialism -- historically past?" (2023)
+ Cutrone, "Lenin's liberalism" and "Lenin's politics" (2011)
+ Cutrone, "What is political party for Marxism?" (2014)
+ Cutrone, “Proletarian dictatorship and state capitalism” (2015)
+ Cutrone, “What was social democracy” (2016)
+ Cutrone, "Back to Herbert Spencer! Industrial vs. militant society" (2016) [audio]
+ Cutrone, "Horkheimer in 1943 on party and class" (2016)
+ Max Horkheimer, "On the sociology of class relations" (1943)
+ Cutrone, "Lenin today" (2020)
+ Cutrone, "The dictatorship of the proletariat and the death of the Left" (2021)
+ August Nimtz, Andrew Arato and Chris Cutrone, "Socialism, liberalism and Marxism" (January 6, 2021)

Week 1 | June 10, 2023

• August Nimtz, Marxism versus Liberalism (2019) 1. Introduction; and Chapters 2–3 on Marx and Engels versus Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill

Week 2 | June 17, 2023

• Nimtz, Marxism versus Liberalism (2019) Chapters 4–5 on Lenin versus Weber and Woodrow Wilson; and 6. Conclusion

Week 3 | June 24, 2023

• Robert Michels, Political Parties (1915) (especially Preface, Ch. 1-2, Part 1 and Parts 3 and 4)

Week 4 | July 1, 2023

• Max Weber, "Socialism" (1918); and "Politics as a vocation" and "Science as a vocation" (1919)
+ Weber, "Structures of power; Class, status, party; Bureaucracy"

Week 5 | July 8, 2023

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
• Otto Kircheimer, "Changes in the structure of political compromise" (1941)
• Herbert Marcuse, "The struggle against liberalism in the totalitarian view of the state" (1934) in Negations
+ Franz Neumann, "The change in the function of law in modern society" (1937)
• Sigmund Neumann, “The party of democratic integration” (1956); and Kirchheimer, "The catch-all party" (1966)

Week 6 | July 15, 2023

• Nicos Poulantzas and Ralph Miliband, debate on capitalism and the state (1972)
+ Michael Harrington, "Marxism and Democracy" (1981)
• Mike Macnair, Revolutionary Strategy (2009)
+ Cutrone, "Lenin today" (2020)

Week 7 | July 22, 2023

• Benjamin Studebaker, The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way is Shut (2023)
+ Studebaker, “The Heart of Isonomia: Equality of Political Participation versus Equality of Political Capabilities: A Fundamental Dilemma at the Heart of Democratic Theory” (2023)

“Society is a reality sui generis; it has its own characteristics that are either not found in the rest of the universe or are not found there in the same form."
"Society is a sui generis being with its own special nature, distinct from that of its members, and a personality of its own different from individual personalities."
-- Emile Durkheim

"Society is a concept of the Third Estate."
-- Adorno

( • required / + recommended readings)

Required background reading:
• Chris Cutrone, "Back to Herbert Spencer! Industrial vs. militant society" (2016) [audio]

Recommended supplemental parallel reading:
+ Adorno, "Static and Dynamic as Sociological Categories" (1961)
+ Adorno, Introduction to Sociology 1962 lectures
+ Adorno, Philosophical Elements of a Theory of Society 1964 lectures
+ Adorno, Philosophy and Sociology 1960 lectures

Preliminary readings:
• Adorno, “Society” (1965)
• Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns" (1819)

Charts of terms:
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms

Week 1: June 4, 2022

• Adorno, “Society” (1965)
+ Chris Cutrone, "Gillian Rose's 'Hegelian' critique of Marxism" (2010)
• Gillian Rose, Hegel Contra Sociology (1981/95) selections: Preface for 1995 reprint, 1. The Antinomies of Sociological Reason, 7. With What Must the Science End?

Week 2: June 11, 2022

• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58)
• Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) selections: Author's Introduction, Part I Chapters 1-3, Part II (+ Chapter 4,) Chapter 5

Week 3: June 18, 2022

• Auguste Comte, Introduction to Positive Philosophy (1830-42) I. The nature and importance of the positive philosophy; The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte vol. III Bk. VI. Social Physics pp. 1-11, 199-216, 277-344 [PDF Positive Philosophy of Comte selections]; A General View of Positivism Ch. II. The Social Aspect of Positivism pp. 63-78, Ch. VI. The Religion of Humanity pp. 340-426 [PDF General View of Positivism selections]
+ Chris Cutrone, "Ends of philosophy" (2018)

Week 4: June 25, 2022

+ Chris Cutrone, "Back to Herbert Spencer! Industrial vs. militant society" (2016) [audio]
• Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology Vol. I Part I The Data of Sociology Ch. I-IV pp. 3-40 [PDF] and Part II The Inductions of Sociology Ch. I-II pp. 447-462 [PDF]; On Social Evolution (Univ. Chicago selections): IV 15–16 Societal Typologies, Militancy and Industrialism and V 18–19 Ceremonial and Political Institutions; The Man Versus the State VI The Great Political Superstition [PDF selection]

Week 5: July 2, 2022

• Emile Durkheim, Chapter 3. "The principles of 1789 and sociology" (1890); Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) Introduction, selections V Social Creativity Ch. 11-12, in On Morality and Society

Week 6: July 9, 2022

• Durkheim, Chapter 10. "The dualism of human nature and its social conditions" (1914), Ch. 4. "Individualism and the intellectuals" (1898); The Division of Labor in Society (1893) Author's Preface to the 1st Edition and Introduction (pp. xxv-xxx and 1-10), selection IV The Evolution of Morality Ch. 6, in On Morality and Society

Week 7: July 16, 2022

• Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (1893) selections IV. The Evolution of Morality Chapters 7-9, in On Morality and Society; Author's Preface to the 2nd Edition (pp. xxxi-lix)

Week 8: July 23, 2022

• Frankfurt School, Aspects of Sociology (1956) selections: Preface by Horkheimer and Adorno, Chapters I-VI, XII
• Adorno, “Society” (1965)
+ Adorno, "Static and Dynamic as Sociological Categories" (1961)