J. Wolff PHIL 2040 2009-2010

Dept of Philosophy

University College London

j.wolff@ucl.ac.uk

Marxism

The lectures this term aim:

1: 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.

2: To explore an apparent paradox that runs through Marx’s thought about justice. On the one hand, his major works, such as Capital appear to be written from the standpoint of high moral outrage. Marx uses justice-based concepts - - ‘exploitation’, ‘theft’, ‘robbery’ and ‘unpaid labour’ - - to condemn capitalism. But on the other hand, Marx is often read as asserting that moral judgements are ‘mere ideology’; ‘obsolete verbal nonsense’. And Marx never says that capitalism is unjust. In fact, he says that it is ‘by no means unjust’. What should we make of this tension?

These texts from Marx are collected in a number of edited works, and also at www.marxists.org for free download. For the Early Writings 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

Class Schedule

Oct 6^th: Introduction. No specific reading

Oct 13th"On The Jewish Question"

McLellan 1 49-62, McLellan 2 46-70, Colletti 211-41.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/

Oct 20^th “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right: Introduction”

M1 63-73, M2 71-82, C 243-57.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm

Oct 27^th Alienated Labour

Readings for weeks 4-6 "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts" M1 75-112, M2 83-121, C 322-58, 377-400. "On James Mill" M1 114-123, M2 122 -132, C 26478.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm

Nov 3^rd On Money

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm

Nov 10^th Reading Week

Nov 17^th Private Property and Communism

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/james-mill/index.htm

Nov 24^th "Theses on Feuerbach"

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm

Dec 1^st The Marxian Critique of Justice The Wood Thesis

The Marxian Critique of Justice Allen W. Wood

Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Spring, 1972), pp. 244-282

Dec 8^th The Marxian Critique of Justice Husami Reply

Marx on Distributive Justice Ziyad I. Husami

Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 27-64

Marx on Right and Justice: A Reply to Husami Allen W. Wood

Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Spring, 1979), pp. 267-295

Dec 15^th Distribution Under Communism

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/index.htm

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 You’re an Egalitarian How Come You’re 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.

Reading For Marx and Justice

Primary Sources

The pamphlet Critique of the Gotha Programme is the most useful of Marx’s texts in this context. It is here he sets out the position ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need’. It is reprinted in the Penguin collection of Marx: The First International and After: Political Writings Volume 3. It is also available as a cheap pamphlet, and in many other collections, although the version printed in McLellan is edited in an unhelpful way. Much of the secondary literature assumes that the reader understands the distinction between ‘Utopian’ and ‘Scientific’ Socialism. The best source for this is Engels’ pamphlet Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. Both primary texts available from www.marxists.org

Other relevant passages from Marx are widely scattered among his works. But much of the material is cited in the secondary literature.

When reading the Wood/Husami debate, please read Wood 1972 first, then Husami, then Wood 1979. It is better to read these papers before reading the Geras and Lukes papers.

Secondary Sources

Cohen, G.A., ‘Self-Ownership, communism, and equality; against the Marxist technological fix.’ in his Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality.

Cohen, M., Nagel, T., and Scanlon, T. ed. Marx Justice and History (MJH)

Geras, N., ‘The Controversy about Marx and Justice’, in Marxist Theory ed. A Callinicos.

Husami, Z., ‘Marx on Distributive Justice’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 1978 and in MJH.

Kolakowski, L. Main Currents of Marxism Vol 1 Ch 10, on Utopian and Scientific Socialism

Lukes, S., ‘Marxism, Morality and Justice’, in Marx and Marxisms ed. G.H.R. Parkinson.

Lukes, S., Marx and Marxism.

Miller, R., ‘Marx and Aristotle: A Kind of Consequentialism’ in Marxist Theory ed. A. Callinicos.

Rosen, M., ‘Marx’ in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Wolff, J. Marx Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/

Wood, A., The Marxian Critique of Justice, Philosophy and Public Affairs , 1972 and in MJH and in Philosophy Through Its Past ed. Honderich.

Wood, A., Marx on Right and Justice’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 1979, and in MJH.