Optional Spring term course - 861V7B
30 Credits
Tutor: Andrew Chitty
(This course will be taught for the first time in Spring 2010. It replaces the former courses 'Hegel' and 'Marx'.)
The course focuses on Hegel and Marx as social and political philosophers. The first half of the course will look at Hegel's social thought and its place in his overall account of consciousness, historical change, and the Absolute. It will aim to elucidate notions such as recognition, spirit, freedom and ethical life in Hegel . The second half of the course will look at a range of Marx's works, investigating his ideas of freedom, species-being, alienation, class, capitalism and communism. A key theme of the course will be the various ways in which Marx did and did not develop themes from Hegel's social and political thought.
List of topics:
1. Hegel's metaphysics and dialectical method
Preface, introduction and chapter 8 of the Phenomenology of Spirit, introductions to the Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Mind
2. The master-servant relation, mutual recognition and spirit
Phenomenology of Spirit ch. 4 and introduction to ch. 5B, Philosophy of Mind (excerpts)
3. Hegel's theory of history
Phenomenology of Spirit ch. 6, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, Philosophy of History (excerpts), Philosophy of Right Preface
4. Hegel on the modern state
Philosophy of Right Introduction, sections on abstract right, civil society, the state
5. Feuerbach on religion and the early Marx on the state
Feuerbach: The Essence of Christianity (excerpts), Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, On the Jewish Question
6. The early Marx on species-being and alienation
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Notes on James Mill
7. Marx's theory of history
The German Ideology chapter 1, Letter to Annenkov, 1859 Preface
8. Value, social form and fetishism
Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (excerpt), Capital vol. 1 chs. 1-2, Capital vol. 3 ch. 48, Letter to Kugelmann
9. Capital, subsumption and colonialism
Introduction to the Grundrisse, Capital vol. 1 chs. 3-7, 'Results of the Immediate Process of Production', 'Future Results of the British Rule in India'
10. Crisis, the proletariat and communism
The Communist Manifesto, Grundrisse (excerpts), Capital vol. 1 chs. 12, 25, 32, The Civil War in France, Critique of the Gotha Programme
Preparatory reading:
For introductions to Hegel's philosophy as a whole see Peter Singer's, Hegel: A Very Short Introduction (2002; originally published as Hegel, Pastmasters) or Stephen Houlgate's An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History (2005). For an introduction to his political philosophy see Shlomo Avineri's Hegel's Theory of the Modern State (1972).
For introductions to Marx see David McLellan's Marx (1975), Andrew Collier's Marx (2004) or Peter Osborne's How to Read Marx (2005).
30 Credits
Tutor: Andrew Chitty
(This course will be taught for the first time in Spring 2010. It replaces the former courses 'Hegel' and 'Marx'.)
The course focuses on Hegel and Marx as social and political philosophers. The first half of the course will look at Hegel's social thought and its place in his overall account of consciousness, historical change, and the Absolute. It will aim to elucidate notions such as recognition, spirit, freedom and ethical life in Hegel . The second half of the course will look at a range of Marx's works, investigating his ideas of freedom, species-being, alienation, class, capitalism and communism. A key theme of the course will be the various ways in which Marx did and did not develop themes from Hegel's social and political thought.
List of topics:
1. Hegel's metaphysics and dialectical method
Preface, introduction and chapter 8 of the Phenomenology of Spirit, introductions to the Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Mind
2. The master-servant relation, mutual recognition and spirit
Phenomenology of Spirit ch. 4 and introduction to ch. 5B, Philosophy of Mind (excerpts)
3. Hegel's theory of history
Phenomenology of Spirit ch. 6, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, Philosophy of History (excerpts), Philosophy of Right Preface
4. Hegel on the modern state
Philosophy of Right Introduction, sections on abstract right, civil society, the state
5. Feuerbach on religion and the early Marx on the state
Feuerbach: The Essence of Christianity (excerpts), Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, On the Jewish Question
6. The early Marx on species-being and alienation
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Notes on James Mill
7. Marx's theory of history
The German Ideology chapter 1, Letter to Annenkov, 1859 Preface
8. Value, social form and fetishism
Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (excerpt), Capital vol. 1 chs. 1-2, Capital vol. 3 ch. 48, Letter to Kugelmann
9. Capital, subsumption and colonialism
Introduction to the Grundrisse, Capital vol. 1 chs. 3-7, 'Results of the Immediate Process of Production', 'Future Results of the British Rule in India'
10. Crisis, the proletariat and communism
The Communist Manifesto, Grundrisse (excerpts), Capital vol. 1 chs. 12, 25, 32, The Civil War in France, Critique of the Gotha Programme
Preparatory reading:
For introductions to Hegel's philosophy as a whole see Peter Singer's, Hegel: A Very Short Introduction (2002; originally published as Hegel, Pastmasters) or Stephen Houlgate's An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History (2005). For an introduction to his political philosophy see Shlomo Avineri's Hegel's Theory of the Modern State (1972).
For introductions to Marx see David McLellan's Marx (1975), Andrew Collier's Marx (2004) or Peter Osborne's How to Read Marx (2005).