Lecture Notes on Marx

by Dr. Jan Garrett

This page last revised on April 19, 2013

This web page will be modified over the period we are discussing Marx in class.

There are hundreds of challenges to Marx. Many are based on misconceptions, some deliberately cultivated. See Challenges to Marx.

Introduction

I. Historical Materialism
     A. "Historical" and "materialism"
     B. Historical stages
     B'. Marx on Classes and Class Struggle (new here: 12-3-2012)
     C. Base and Superstructure: the Explanatory Model
     D. Terms
          1. Mode of production
          2. Social formation
          3. Exploitation
     E. Dialectic
          1. In Plato
          2. In Modern Philosophy (as perceived by Hegel)
          3. In Hegel's philosophy
          4. The Hegelian Heritage reworked by Marx.
          5. Marxian Historical Dialectic in the Emergence of the Capital System

II. Critique of Political Economy
     A. The Production / Accumulation Cycle at the Heart of the Capital System
     B. Vocabulary of Marx's Critique of Capital and Political Economy
     C. Problems with Capitalism

III. The Transition to Socialism
     A. Passages from Lebowitz, The Socialist Alternative
     B. Comments on those passages by Dr. Garrett