Die historischen Wurzeln der Linken und des Marxismus liegen in den bürgerlichen Revolutionen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts und deren Krise im 19. Jahrhundert. Der Lesekreis versucht diesen geschichtlichen Hintergrund durch die Lektüre von Texten von Marx und der radikalen bürgerlichen Philosophie der Aufklärung herauszuarbeiten. Durch Texte von Autoren wie Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch und Leszek Kołakowski versuchen wir, das Problem des politischen Bewusstseins der Linken im 20. Jahrhundert, das bis heute prägend bleibt, zu beleuchten.

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Wöchentlich Freitags ab dem 30.09.

18:30–21:30 Uhr

Raum 7.F03, Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, Zürich

Für eventuelle Frage könnt ihr gerne eine Mail schreiben: platypus.zurich@gmail.com

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

• vorausgesetzte / + empfohlene Texte

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SITZUNGEN

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30.09.2022 | Woche A. Einführung: Das Kapital in der Geschichte

• Max Horkheimer, Der kleine Mann und die Philosophie der Freiheit (1926-31)
• Epigraphe über moderne Geschichte und Freiheit von Louis Menand (über Marx und Engels), Karl Marx, über das „Werden“ (aus Grundrisse, 1857-58) und Peter Preuss (über Geschichte)

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms

• Chris Cutrone: Das Kapital in der Geschichte (2008)

+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms

+ Capital in History Teach In [Video] (2011)

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

• Cutrone, The Marxist Hypothesis (2010)
• Cutrone, Klassenbewusstsein (aus einer marxistischen Perspektive) heute

+ G.M. Tamas, Telling the Truth About Class [HTML] (2007)

+ Robert Pippin, On Critical Theory (2004)

+ Rainer Maria Rilke, Archaïscher Torso Apollos (1908)

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07.10.2022 | Woche B. Radikale Bürgerliche Philosophie I. Rousseau: Gesellschaft am Scheideweg

„Radikal sein ist die Sache an der Wurzel fassen. Die Wurzel für den Menschen ist aber der Mensch selbst.“

— Marx, Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie (1843)

„Wer den Mut besitzt, einem Volke Einrichtungen zu geben, muß sich imstande fühlen, gleichsam die menschliche Natur umzuwandeln, jedes Individuum, das für sich ein vollendetes und einzeln bestehendes Ganzes ist, zu einem Teile eines größeren Ganzen umzuschaffen, aus dem dieses Individuum gewissermaßen erst Leben und Wesen erhält; die Beschaffenheit des Menschen zu seiner eigenen Kräftigung zu verändern und an die Stelle des leiblichen und unabhängigen Daseins, das wir alle von der Natur empfangen haben, ein nur teilweises und geistiges Dasein zu setzen. Kurz, er muß dem Menschen die ihm eigentümlichen Kräfte nehmen, um ihn mit anderen auszustatten, die seiner Natur fremd sind und die er ohne den Beistand anderer nicht zu benutzen versteht.“

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Vom Gesellschaftsvertrag (1762)

• Max Horkheimer, Der kleine Mann und die Philosophie der Freiheit (1926-31)
• Epigraphe über moderne Geschichte und Freiheit von James Miller (über Rousseau), Menand (über Marx und Engels), Marx, über das „Werden“ (Aus den Grundrissen, 1857-58) und Preuss (über Geschichte)

+ Rilke, Archaïscher Torso Apollos (1908)

+ Pippin, On Critical Theory (2004)

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Abhandlung über den Ursprung und die Grundlagen der Ungleichheit unter den Menschen (1754)

+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms

• Rousseau, Auszüge aus Der Gesellschaftsvertrag (1762)

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14.10.2022 | Woche C. Radikale Bürgerliche Philosophie II. Adam Smith: Über den Wohlstand der Nationen (Teil 1)

• Adam Smith, Auszüge aus Der Wohlstand der Nationen (1776)

(Einleitung und Plan des Werkes

Buch I: Von den Ursachen der Zunahme in der Ertragskraft der Arbeit und von den Regeln, nach welchen ihr Ertrag sich naturgemäß unter die verschiedenen Volksklassen verteilt

I.1. Teilung der Arbeit

I.2. Über den Trieb, der die Teilung der Arbeit veranlasst

I.3. Die Teilung der Arbeit hat ihre Schranken an der Ausdehnung des Marktes

I.4. Vom Ursprung und Gebrauch des Geldes

I.5. Vom wahren und nominellen Preise der Waren, oder von ihrem Preise in Arbeit und ihrem Preise in Geld

I.6. Die Bestandteile des Warenpreises

I.7. Der natürliche Preis und der Marktpreis der Waren

I.8. Der Arbeitslohn

I.9. Der Kapitalgewinn

Buch III: Die verschiedenen Fortschritte zum Reichtum bei den verschiedenen Nationen

III.1. Der natürliche Fortschritt zum Reichtum

III.2. Entmutigung des Ackerbaus in Europa nach dem Fall des römischen Reiches

III.3. Entstehen und Wachsen der Städte nach dem Fall des römischen Reiches

III.4. Beitrag des städtischen Handels zur Vervollkommnung der Landwirtschaft)

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28.10.2022 | Woche D. Radikale Bürgerliche Philosophie III. Adam Smith: Über den Wohlstand der Nationen (Teil 2)

• Smith, Auszüge aus Der Wohlstand der Nationen (1776)

(Buch IV: Systeme der politischen Ökonomie

IV.7. Über Kolonien

Buch V: Die Staatsfinanzen

V.1. Die Staatsausgaben)

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04.11.2022 | Woche E. Radikale Bürgerliche Philosophie IV. Was ist der dritte Stand?

• Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, Auszug aus Was ist der dritte Stand? (1789)

+ Bernard Mandeville, Die Bienenfabel (1732)

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11.11.2022 | Woche F. Radikale Bürgerliche Philosophie V. Kant und Constant: Bürgerliche Gesellschaft

• Immanuel Kant, Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht (1874) und Was ist Aufklärung? (1784)

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms

+ Kant's 3 Critiques and philosophy charts of terms [PNG]

• Benjamin Constant, Von der Freiheit des Altertums, verglichen mit der Freiheit der Gegenwart (1819)

+ Rousseau, Abhandlung über den Ursprung und die Grundlagen der Ungleichheit unter den Menschen (1754)

+ Rousseau, Auszüge aus Der Gesellschaftsvertrag (1762)

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18.11.2022 | Woche G. Radikale Bürgerliche Philosophie VI. Hegel: Freiheit in der Geschichte

• G.W.F. Hegel, Vorwort zu Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms

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25.11.2022 | Woche 1. Was ist die Linke? II. Utopie und Kritik

• Horkheimer, Auszüge aus Dämmerung (1926–31)
• Adorno, Ausschweifung aus Minima Moralia (1944–47)
• Leszek Kołakowski, Der Sinn des Begriffes ›Linke‹ (1968)
• Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
• Marx, Auszüge aus seiner Doktordissertation (1839-41)
• Marx, Brief an Arnold Ruge (September 1843)

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms  

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

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02.12.2022 | Woche 2. Was ist Marxismus? I. Sozialismus

• Marx, Auszüge aus Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte (1844)

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms  

• Marx und Friedrich Engels, Auszüge aus dem Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848)

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

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09.12.2022 | Woche 3. Was ist Marxismus? II. Die Revolution von 1848

• Marx, Ansprache der Zentralbehörde an den Bund vom März 1850 und Klassenkampf und Produktionsweise (aus dem Brief an Weydemeyer, 1852)
• Engels, Zur Taktik der Sozialdemokratie (Einleitung zu Marx’ Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850, 1895)
• Marx, Auszüge aus Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850 (1850)
• Marx, Auszüge aus Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte (1852)

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17.12.2022 | Woche 4. Was ist Marxismus? III. Bonapartismus

+ Karl Korsch, Der Marxismus der Ersten Internationale (1924)

• Marx, Inauguraladresse der Internationalen Arbeiter-Assoziation (1864)
• Marx, Auszüge aus Der Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich (Teil III und IV, 1871) inklusive Engels' Einleitung (1891)

+ Korsch, Einleitung zu Marx' Kritik des Gothaer Programms (1922)

• Marx, Kritik des Gothaer Programms (1875)
• Marx, Einleitung zum Programm der französischen Arbeiterpartei (1880)

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20.12.2022 | Woche 5. Was ist Marxismus? IV. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie

„Der Fetischcharakter der Ware ist keine Tatsache des Bewußtseins sondern dialektisch in dem emminenten Sinne, daß er Bewußtsein produziert. […] [D]ie Vollendung des Warencharakters in einem Hegelschen Selbstbewußtsein [inauguriert] die Sprengung der Phantasmagorie.“

— Theodor W. Adorno, in einem Brief an Walter Benjamin, 2.-4. August 1935

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms

+ Marx on surplus-value chart of terms

• Marx, Auszüge aus Grundrisse (1857–61)
• Marx, Der Fetischcharakter der Ware und sein Geheimnis aus Das Kapital Bd. I (1867)

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

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06.01.2023 | Woche 6. Was ist Marxismus? V. Verdinglichung

• Georg Lukács,Das Phänomen der Verdinglichung (Teil I des Kapitels Die Verdinglichung und das Bewusstsein des Proletariats, in: Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein, 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

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13.01.2023 | Woche 7. Was ist Marxismus? VI. Klassenbewusstsein

• Lukács, Auszüge aus Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923) (Vorwort (1922), Klassenbewusstsein (1920), Was ist orthodoxer Marxismus? (1919))

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms

+ Reification chart of terms

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

+ Herbert Marcuse, A Note on Dialectic (1960)

+ Marx, Vorwort zur ersten und Nachwort zur zweiten Auflage (1867/1873) von Das Kapital Bd. I (1867)

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20.01.2023 | Woche 8. Was ist Marxismus? VII. Das Telos der Philosophie

• Korsch, Marxismus und Philosophie (1923)

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

+ Marcuse, A Note on Dialectic (1960)

+ Marx, Auszüge aus seiner Doktordissertation (1839-41)

+ Marx, Brief an Arnold Ruge (September 1843)

+ Marx, Thesen über Feuerbach (1845)

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Empfohlene Hintergrundlektüre für die zweite Hälfte (Frühlingssemester 2023) des Lesekreises: „Was ist revolutionärer Marxismus?“

+ Richard Appignanesi und Oscar Zarate / A&Z: Lenin für Anfänger (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner: Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19 (1968)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans: Trotzki für Anfänger (1980)
+ James Joll: The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)
+ Edmund Wilson: Auszüge aus To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940)

[. . .]

Every Sunday, 2 pm
New North 204
Georgetown University (37^th and O St NW, Washington, DC 20057)
For regular updates, please follow our Facebook page: facebook.com/PlatypusGeorgetown

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• required / + recommended reading

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Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)

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Week 1. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Sep. 4, 2022

To be radical is to go to the root of the matter. For man, however, the root is man himself.
— Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843)

Whoever dares undertake to establish a people’s 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.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)

• Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926–31)

• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter Preuss (on history)

+ 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]

+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms

• Rousseau, selection from On the Social Contract (1762) [on freedom and alienation]

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Week 2. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Adam Smith: On the wealth of nations (part 1) | Sep. 11, 2022

• Adam Smith, selections from The Wealth of Nations

Volume I [PDF]
Introduction and Plan of the Work
Book I: Of the Causes of Improvement…
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.5 Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities
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

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Week 3. Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Adam Smith: On the wealth of nations (part 2) | Sep. 18, 2022

• Smith, selections from The Wealth of Nations

Volume II [PDF]
IV.7, Of Colonies
V.1. Of the Expences of the Sovereign or Commonwealth Article 2d and 3d and Part IV

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Week 4. Radical bourgeois philosophy IV. What is the Third Estate? | Sep. 28, 2022

• Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, What is the Third Estate? (1789) [full text]

+ Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees (1732)

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Week 5. Radical bourgeois philosophy V. Kant and Constant: Bourgeois society | Oct. 2, 2022

• 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

+ Kant's 3 Critiques [PNG] and philosophy [PNG] charts 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)

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Week 6. Platypus East Coast Conference | Oct. 9, 2022

There is no reading group this week because of the Platypus East Coast Conference in New York City.

Week 7. Radical bourgeois philosophy VI. Hegel: Freedom in history | Oct. 16, 2022

"When we look at this drama of human passions, and observe the consequences of their violence and of the unreason that is linked not only to them but also (and especially) to good intentions and rightful aims; when we see arising from them all the evil, the wickedness, the decline of the most flourishing nations mankind has produced, we can only be filled with grief for all that has come to nothing. And since this decline and fall is not merely the work of nature but of the will of men, we might well end with moral outrage over such a drama, and with a revolt of our good spirit (if there is a spirit of goodness in us). Without rhetorical exaggeration, we could paint the most fearful picture of the misfortunes suffered by the noblest of nations and states as well as by private virtues — and with that picture we could arouse feelings of the deepest and most helpless sadness, not to be outweighed by any consoling outcome. We can strengthen ourselves against this, or escape it, only by thinking that, well, so it was at one time; it is fate; there is nothing to be done about it now. And finally — in order to cast off the tediousness that this reflection of sadness could produce in us and to return to involvement in our own life, to the present of our own aims and interests — we return to the selfishness of standing on a quiet shore where we can be secure in enjoying the distant sight of confusion and wreckage… But as we contemplate history as this slaughter-bench, upon which the happiness of nations, the wisdom of states, and the virtues of individuals were sacrificed, the question necessarily comes to mind: What was the ultimate goal for which these monstrous sacrifices were made?… World history is the progress in the consciousness of freedom — a progress that we must come to know in its necessity… The Orientals knew only that one person is free; the Greeks and Romans that some are free; while we [moderns] know that all humans are implicitly free, qua human… The final goal of the world, we said, is Spirit’s consciousness of its freedom, and hence also the actualization of that very freedom… It is this final goal — freedom — toward which all the world’s history has been working. It is this goal to which all the sacrifices have been brought upon the broad altar of the earth in the long flow of time." 
— Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History

• 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

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Week 8. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Oct. 23, 2022

• Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926–31)

• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter Preuss (on history)

+ 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, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) today” (2012)

+ G.M. Tamas, "Telling the truth about class" [HTML] (2007)

+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)

+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)

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Week 9. What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique | Oct. 30, 2022

• Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926–31)

• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)

• Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1958)

• Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)

• Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11

• Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

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Week 10. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Nov. 6, 2022

• Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844), pp. 70–101

+ 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, The coming upheaval (from The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847), pp. 218–19

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Week 11. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 13, 2022

• Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850), pp. 501–511 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. 556–573

• Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850), pp. 586–593

• Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594–617

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Week 12. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Nov. 20, 2022

+ Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)

• Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512–519

• Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618–652

+ Korsch, Introduction to Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)

• Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525–541

• Marx, Programme of the Parti Ouvrier (1880)

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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 1918–19 (1968)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)
+ Carl Schorske, The SPD 1905-17: The Development of the Great Schism (1955)
+ J.P. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg (1966) [Vol. 1] [Vol. 2]
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6

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Week 13. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Nov. 27, 2022

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.
— 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 on surplus-value chart of terms

• Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 276–293 ME Reader pp. 276–281

• Marx, Capital Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319–329

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

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Week 15. What is Marxism? V. Reification | Dec. 4, 2022

• Georg Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” 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

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Week 16. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Dec. 11, 2022

• Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (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
+ Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302

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Week 17. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Dec. 18, 2023 (date to be confirmed)

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

+ Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
+ Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11

+ Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15

+ Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), pp. 143–145

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Winter–Spring 2023

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

[. . .]

“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

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

Zeit: Sonntags 19:30-22:30

Ort: Online via Zoom; Zoom-Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87686873649

• vorausgesetzte Texte
+ zusätzlich, empfohlene Texte

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Vorausgesetzte Hintergrundlektüre:

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

Empfohlene, zusätzliche Hintergrundtexte: 

+ 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)

Einleitende Texte: 

• Adorno, “Gesellschaft” (1965; in: Adorno, Soziologische Schriften I; wird auf Anfrage per Email verschickt) 
• Benjamin Constant: „Von der Freiheit des Altertums, verglichen mit der Freiheit der Gegenwart”(1819)

Schaubilder und Begriffe:

+ 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

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1. Woche: 21. August 2022

• Adorno, “Gesellschaft” (1965; in Adorno, Soziologische Schriften I) 
+ 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? 

2. Woche: 28. August 2022

• Epigraphe über moderne Geschichte und Freiheit von Louis Menand (über Marx und Engels), und Karl Marx, über das „Werden“ (Aus den Grundrissen, 1857-58) 
• Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus (1904-1905) Auswahl: Vorbemerkung, Teil 1, I. Kapitel 1-3, Teil 1., II. (+ Kapitel 1,) Kapitel 2 [wird per Email verschickt, bitte anfragen]

3. Woche: 4. September 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 PositivismCh. 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) 

4. Woche: 11. September 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]

5. Woche: 18. September 2022

• Emile Durkheim, "The principles of 1789 and sociology" (1890); V Social Creativity Ch. 11-12; alles in On Morality and Society

• Emile Durkheim (1912): Die elementaren Formen des religiösen Lebens, Einleitung

6. Woche: 25. September 2022

• Durkheim, Chapter 10. "The dualism of human nature and its social conditions" (1914), Ch. 4. "Individualism and the intellectuals" (1898); IV The Evolution of Morality Ch. 6, in On Morality and Society

• Durkheim: Über soziale Arbeitsteilung (1893) Vorwort zur ersten Ausgabe und Einleitung

7. Woche: 2. Oktober 2022

• Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (1893) selections IV. The Evolution of Morality Chapters 7-9, in On Morality and Society;

• Durkheim: Über soziale Arbeitsteilung, Vorwort zur zweiten Auflage

8. Woche: 9. Oktober 2022

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

[. . .]

The V. European Conference of the Platypus Affiliated Society took place from September 8-10, 2022 at the University of Vienna, Austria. You can find the video and audio recordings of all the events below.

Thursday, September 8^th

Panel Discussion: Was ist das Kritische an der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie? [German]
Was ist bürgerliche politische Ökonomie und warum entwickelt Marx eine Kritik an ihr? Wie verhält sich diese Kritik an der politischen Ökonomie zu seiner Kritik des Sozialismus? Was ist das spezifisch Politische daran? Inwiefern ist seine Kritik an der politischen Ökonomie dialektisch? Inwiefern lässt sich durch eine Rückkehr zu Marxens Kritik der politischen Ökonomie der Kampf um den Sozialismus heute re-aktualisieren?
5–7 pm (Hörsaal I at Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna)

Speakers:

• Lars Quadfasel (Hamburger Studienbibliothek)
• Representative Der Funke/International Marxist Tendency
• Frieder Otto Wolf (Philosopher and Political Scientist)

Video Recording

Audio Recording

Friday, September 9^th

Teach-In: What is Society?
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, both Thatcher and Laclau could agree on one thing: “society” does not exist. Since 2015, a meme circulates stating vapidly: “We live in a society.” What was society? What is its crisis? Two 19th century phenomena, “socialism” and “sociology”, continue to haunt us. Can we make sense of them without a concept of “society”?
10–12 am (Hörsaal I at Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna)

Video Recording

Audio Recording

Presentations by different leftists organizations
Different leftist organizations get the opportunity to present themselves, their aims, and their activities.
1.30–4 pm (Hörsaal 6, 2 and 3 at Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna)

1.30–2.30 pm

3–4 pm

Panel Discussion: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Left
What was the Marxist understanding of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat? How has our understanding of the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat been shaped and changed over the course of the 20th century? What is its relevance for the struggle for socialism today?
5–7 pm (Hörsaal I at Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna)

Speakers:

• Thodoris Velissaris (Platypus Affiliated Society)
• David Harvie (Political Economist)
• Gavin Mendel-Gleason (Workers' Party of Ireland)
• Olga Stefou (SYRIZA)

Video Recording

Audio Recording

Saturday, September 10^th

Teach-In: Prefigurative Politics and the Millennial Left
Before folding into centre-Left political parties, the Millennial Left went through a ‘neo-anarchist’ or ‘prefigurative’ phase. The ‘movement of the squares’ (encompassing Occupy and the Indignados) is the most visible manifestation of this prefigurative turn in politics. With prefiguration on the rise again today, this teach-in seeks to clarify and critique this tendency as a historical phenomenon of the Left.
10–12 am (Hörsaal III at Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna)

Video Recording

Audio Recording

Panel Discussion: Solidarność in the 1980s and the politics of solidarity
Solidarność (Solidarity) emerged in Poland in 1980 as a movement for workers solidarity with self-governing shipyard unions. With the support of dissident Polish intellectuals at home and broad sections of the Left abroad, Solidarność grew in strength and became a key participant in Polish reforms through the 80s and beyond. As such, it can appear as either a late expression of New Left attempts to further the revolution, or as a prefiguration of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
2–4 pm (Hörsaal I at Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna)

Speakers:

• Bruno Drweski (National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations)
• Ákos Földesi (Szikra)
• Mateusz Wasilewski (Platypus Affiliated Society)
• Marek Beylin (Historian and Journalist)

Video Recording

Audio Recording

Public Interview: What is Left of SYRIZA?
“You, SYRIZA, the true miracle, radical left movement, which stepped out of the comfortable position of marginal resistance and courageously signaled your readiness to take power. This is why you have to be punished.”
- Slavoj Zizek, 2012

In the recent past SYRIZA exemplified a moment of hope for a large part of the (European) Left. In sharp contrast, today it is considered an example of capitulation to the establishment and a scapegoat for the spoiled chances of the anti-austerity struggles. The stakes of SYRIZA politics were enigmatically expressed in the phrase: “SYRIZA was in government but not in power”. This interview wants to explore the legacy of SYRIZA and the sense in which SYRIZA did or did not express potential for radical political change. Nikos Manousakis, member of the Platypus Affiliated Society, will interview Olga Stefou, member of the SYRIZA Central Committee.
5–7 pm (Hörsaal I at Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna)

Video Recording

Audio Recording

[. . .]

Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:00PM
1350 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610-1908

Find the Facebook Events for each session: https://fb.me/e/1Y4dktIPH

• required / + recommended reading

“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

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

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 9, 2022

• 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 16, 2022

• 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 23, 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; A General View of Positivism Ch. II. The Social Aspect of Positivism pp. 63-78, Ch. VI. The Religion of Humanity pp. 340-426

Week 4: June 30, 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 and Part II The Inductions of Sociology Ch. I-II pp. 447-462; 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

Week 5: July 7, 2022

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

Week 6: July 14, 2022

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

Week 7: July 21, 2022

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

Week 8: July 28, 2022

• Frankfurt School, Aspects of Sociology (1956) selections: Preface by Horkheimer and Adorno, Chapters I-VI, XII
• Adorno, “Society” (1965)

[. . .]