Analytical Marxism – Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (7,5 ECTS)
October 8-12, 2012 Department of Philosophy, Lund University Kungshuset, Lund Marcus Agnafors, PhD
Course Summary In popular mind, Marx was an old thinker just about to be swept under the rug, proven as wrong as anyone can be. But following the 2008 Financial Crisis, attention was once again directed toward the theories grounded in the works of Karl Marx as capitalism was said to have shown to be something else than the miraculous system it was alleged to be. The interest in Marx’ theory skyrocketed (as did the interest in the very opposite camp, of course; such as in Ayn Rand and in the Austrian School of Economics). In philosophy however, Marx’ ideas have maintained a fairly steady presence. During the 80’, a philosophical group calling their works “Analytical Marxism” gained a reputation for discussing and improving Marx’ theories using the tools of analytical philosophy. Among the people active in the group were, in addition to its founder G. A. Cohen, now well-known scholars such as Jon Elster, Philippe van Parijs, Erik Olin-Wright, Hillel Steiner and John Roemer. All of them have later had an enormous influence, in philosophy as well as in sociology and economics. The aim of this course is threefold: First, it aims to provide the students with some basic knowledge of Marxist theory. This will involve becoming acquainted with some of Marx’ writings and his terminology. Second, the course’s main goal is to make the students familiar with the works associated with Analytical Marxism and some of the subsequent works of the members of the group. This will also involve studying some of the criticism directed against it. Third, the goal is that the students will, after having taken the course, be able to recognise both classic Marxist ideas and modern Analytical Marxist ideas in current state of affairs and political developments.
Lectures and Seminars The course is spread out over five days (Monday – Friday). Each day contains a mix of lectures and seminars. Each seminar will use one or several short texts as its starting point, although there will be plenty of opportunity to digress into whatever subject is felt to be relevant to the overall topic.
Eligibility The course is suitable both for students already familiar with the field of political philosophy and for newcomers. Basic familiarity with the main theories in the field of political philosophy and/or ethics is preferable, but not required.
1 Course Requirements Each student, in order to get a passing grade, is required to fulfil the following requirements:
(1) Each student must, besides attending the lectures, have an active presence in the seminars. The student must take part in the discussion in an educated and intelligent way. (2) The student must hand in two short papers, approximately two pages each, in which a particular topic (to be announced later) is critically examined. (3) Each student must hand in an individual assignment at the end of the course. It will consist of a 3 000 word long essay on a relevant topic (a list of possible topics will be provided later, although the student is encouraged to find a topic of his or her own).
Grades will be based on all three components above.
Literature To be announced later.
Detailed Schedule A detailed schedule – containing further instructions for the seminars, course essay and papers – will be provided later.
Contact and Registration For questions concerning registration and practicalities, please contact Ylva von Gerber: [email protected]. If you have any questions regarding the content of the course, please contact Marcus Agnafors: [email protected].
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