Jeden Mittwoch ab 10.08.2022 von 16:30–19:30

Ort: Institut für Publizistik, Währinger Str. 29, 1090 Wien

Der Lesekreis findet hybrid, das heißt vor Ort, sowie online über Zoom statt. Der Link zur Zoom-Veranstaltung ist: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81757524713
Bitte wendet euch für Zugang zu allen nicht-verlinkten Texten und zur Anmeldung an unsere Email-Adresse: platypusaustria@gmail.com

• vorausgesetzte Texte
+ zusätzlich, empfohlene Texte

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

Einführende Lektüre:
• Adorno, “Gesellschaft” (1965)
• Benjamin Constant, “Von der Freiheit des Altertums, verglichen mit der Freiheit der Gegenwart” (1819)

Empfohlene Zusatzlektüre:
+ Adorno, Über Statik und Dynamik als soziologische Kategorien (1961)
+ Adorno, Einleitung in die Soziologie (1962)
+ Adorno, Philosophische Elemente einer Theorie der Gesellschaft (1964)
+ Adorno, Philosophie und Soziologie (1960)

Begriffe und Konzepte:
+ 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

Woche 1. | 10. August, Seminarraum 2

• Adorno, “Gesellschaft” (1965)
• 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?
+ Chris Cutrone, "Gillian Rose's 'Hegelian' critique of Marxism" (2010)

Woche 2. | 17. August, Seminarraum 2

• Epigraphe über moderne Geschichte und Freiheit von Louis Menand (über Edmund Wilson) und Karl Marx, über das „Werden“ (Aus den Grundrissen, 1857-58)
• Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus (1905), Vorbemerkung, Teil I. und II.

Woche 3. | 24. August, Seminarraum 10

• 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
+ Chris Cutrone, "Ends of philosophy" (2018)

Woche 4. | 31. August, Online via Zoom

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

Woche 5. | 07. September, Seminarraum 2

• 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

Woche 6. | 14. September, Seminarraum 2

• 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

Woche 7. | 21. September, Seminarraum 10

• 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)

Woche 8. | 28. September, Seminarraum 10

• Frankfurter Schule, Aspects of Sociology (1956) Auswahl: Vorwort von Adorno und Horkheimer, Kapitel I-VI, XII
• Adorno, „Gesellschaft“ (1965)
+ Adorno, „Über Statik und Dynamik als soziologische Kategorien“ (1961)

Am 10. April 2021 organisierte die Platypus Affiliated Society eine virtuelle Podiumsdiskussion mit Frigga Haug (feministische Marxistin), Sascha Stanicic (Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität), Gert Meyer (Historiker) und Stefan Hain (Platypus Affiliated Society), um über den Marxismus der Rosa Luxemburg zu diskutieren.

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

Die Ohnmacht der Linken lässt sich nachverfolgen bis in die 30er-Jahre, zu den sozialistischen und kommunistischen Massenparteien in Europa im Angesicht des Faschismus. Auf das Wachstum faschistischer Bewegungen antworteten sie mit Panik und Kapitulation, ihre Politik resultierte in ihrer Selbstaufgabe als unabhängige politische und soziale Vertretungsorgane des Proletariats. Revolutionäre Parteien verwandelten sich in Stützen des bürgerlich-demokratischen Regimes.

Wir laden euch ein, am Donnerstag, den 05.05.2022, mit uns den Film "Rosa Luxemburg" (1986) von Margarethe Von Trotta anzusehen.

Wann?

05.05.2022, 19:00-21:00

Wo?

"Roter Stern Mexikoplatz", Ennsgasse 20/4, 1020 Wien. Anschließend gibt es eine Diskussion zum Film in informellem Rahmen.