Marx Early Writings
J. Wolff
Term 1: 2008-2009
Dept of Philosophy
j.wolff@ucl.ac.uk
University College London
The point of these lectures is to come to
an understanding of the most important texts Marx produced during his
intellectual formation, prior to developing his theory of historical
materialism and the concept of surplus value. These texts show Marx at his most
philosophical. The readings are in some places very hard, and so some of the
secondary material can be extremely useful, particularly the starred items.
These texts from Marx are collected in a
number of edited works, and also at www.marxists.org
for free download. I have given the page references for two of the most
accessible editions:
Karl Marx: Selected Writings ed. D. McLellan (OUP) (nb some library copies will be the first
edition, in green covers. The second edition has a red cover. Page numbers are
given for both: M1 and M2)
Karl Marx: Early Writings ed. Lucio Colletti (Penguin)
The most useful introductory works on these
writings, are, in my view:
Maguire, John, Marx's Paris Writings
*McLellan, David, Marx Before Marxism
Some other introductory works, and more
advanced texts are listed below.
Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 "On The Jewish
Question" McLellan 1 49-62,
McLellan 2 46-70, Colletti 211-41.
Week 3 "A Contribution to the Critique
of Hegel's Philosophy of Right:
Introduction.
M1 63-73, M2 71-82, C 243-57.
Week 4 Alienated Labour
Week 5 Money
Week 6 Private Property and Communism
Readings for weeks 4-6 "Economic and
Philosophical Manuscripts" M1 75-112, M2 83-121, C 322-34, 345-58, 377-400. "On James Mill" M1 114-123, M2 122 -132, C
264-78.
Week 7 "Theses on Feuerbach" M1
156-9 M2 171-4, C 421-3
Secondary Texts on Early Writings
Adams, William, 'Aesthetics: Liberating the
senses', in The Cambridge Companion to Marx,
ed.
T. Carver
Althusser, Louis, For Marx, essay "On the Young Marx."
Arneson, Richard J., Commerce and
Selfishness Canadian Journal of
Philosophy Supp vol 8,
1982
Arthur, Chris, Dialectics of Labour
*Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought
of Karl Marx
* Cohen, G.A. If YouÕre an Egalitarian
How Come YouÕre So Rich?
chs 4 and 5.
Colletti, Lucio, Karl Marx: Early
Writings, Introduction
Elster, Jon, Making Sense of Marx, pt 1 ch 2
*Hook, Sidney, From Hegel to Marx, chs 1-4, 7, 8.
*Kolakowski, Leszek, Main Currents of Marxism, vol 1, chs 1-7
Maguire, John, Marx's Paris Writings
*McLellan, David, Marx Before Marxism
Plamenatz, John, Karl Marx's Philosophy
of Man, parts 1 and 2
Suchting, W.A. Marx: An Introduction, part 1
Wolff, Jonathan, "Playthings of Alien
Forces", Cogito
1992
*Wolff, Jonathan, Why Read Marx Today?
Wood, Allen, Karl Marx, part 1.