PHIL 3252 - [Marx as Philosopher]

(crosslisted) GERST 3552
(HB) (KCM-AS)

Spring. Next Offered: 2020-2021. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Staff.

Marx is often read primarily as an economic and political theorist or even as a social activist. This course will instead cast him as, first and foremost, a philosopher. Beginning with Marx’s early encounters with Hegel, we will survey his major published and unpublished works, culminating in volume 1 of Capital. While acknowledging the social, economic, and political aspects of his thought, we will focus on its philosophical underpinnings, methodology, and implications. Our principal themes will be Marx’s so-called “dialectical” method of argumentation, materialist theory of history, philosophical anthropology, and theory of value. Supplementary readings may include texts by Hegel, Feuerbach, Bauer, Lukács, Althusser, Bloch, Hyppolite, Miller, Meikle, and Wood.