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Kiss308 Marx and Method King’s Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Centre KISS308 MARX AND METHOD Prof Alex Callinicos- [email protected] European & International Studies 2015-16 Spring Short Course Various, see below 4 2 hours (4-6pm) 19 January 2017 1.20 Franklin Wilkins Building 26 January 2017 3/7 Waterloo Bridge Wing 2 February 2017 1.21 Franklin Wilkins Building 9 February 2017 B16 JCMB (James Clerk Maxwell Building) Marx is best known for the substantive theories he formulated – of the capitalist mode of production and of history more generally. But he understood his own project as the critique of political economy. Critical reflection on the methods used by his predecessors – above all, the classical political economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo – and on his own method were integrated into his substantial analysis in Capital and preceding economic manuscripts. This course will offer an introduction to Marx’s understanding of scientific method, which is of particular interest because of the particular relationship it posits between theoretical abstraction and the results of empirical research, and also because his attempt to marry scientific enquiry to a critique of the dominant ideology and of the social relations he believed it legitimized. 1. History and Theory 2. Ideology and Critique 3. Rising from the Abstract to the Concrete 4. Fetishism, Fragmentation, and Totality Introductory reading: A. Callinicos, The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx (London, 2010), esp. chs. 3 and 4. Please read the texts marked with a star. 1. History and Theory: *Marx, Karl. Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol- economy/preface.htm 1 Callinicos, Alex. The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx (London: Bookmarks, 1983), ch. 5 Cohen, GA. Karl Marx’s Theory of History (Oxford: Clarendon, 1978), chs. II, III, VI, VII, IX, X Harman, Chris. ‘Base and Superstructure’, International Socialism, 2.32 (1986), http://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1986/xx/base-super.html Bensaïd. D. Marx for Our Time (London: Verso, 2002) Levine A & Wright E O. `Rationality and Class Struggle,' New Left Review, I/123 (1980) Brenner R. `The Social Basis of Economic Development', in J Roemer ed, Analytical Marxism (Cambridge: CUP, 1986) Callinicos A. Making History (Leide: Brill, 2004), ch. 2 Cohen J. Review of Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History, Journal of Philosophy, 79 (1982) Cohen G A. `Marxism, Functionalism, and Game Theory', & Elster J. Theory and Society 11 (1982) Elster, J. Making Sense of Marx (Cambridge: CUP, 1985) ch. 5 Giddens A. A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1981) Wright E O. ‘Giddens’s Critique of Marx’, New Left Review, I/138 (1983) Levine A & Sober E. ‘What’s Historical about Historical Materialism’, Journal of Philosophy 82 (1985) Therborn G. Science, Class and Society (London: Verso, 1976), pp. 317-413 Callinicos A. Theories and Narratives (Cambridge: Polity, 1995) esp. chs 2-4 Carling A. Social Division (London: Verso, 1992) ch. 1 Carling A. ‘Analytical Marxism and Historical Materialism, Science and Society, 57 (1993) Wright E O et al Reconstructing Marxism (London: Verso, 1992) Blackledge P & Kirkpatrick E eds Historical Materialism and Social Evolution (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002) Aston T S & Philpin C H E eds. The Brenner Debate (Cambridge: CUP, 1985) 2. Ideology and Critique 2 * Stuart Hall, ‘The Problem of Ideology – Marxism without Guarantees’, in Betty Matthews, ed, Marx: A Hundred Years On (London, 1983), also available in Journal of Communication Inquiry (1986) 10: 28-44 Žižek, S, ed. Mapping Ideology (London: Verso, 1995) Larrain J. The Concept of Ideology (London: Routledge, 1979) Eagleton T. Ideology (London: Verso, 1995) Althusser L. ‘Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatuses’, in Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy (London: NLB, 1971) and in Žižek, ed, Mapping Ideology Abercrombie N et al., The Dominant Ideology Thesis (London: HarperCollins, 1980) Rosen, M. Of Voluntary Servitude (Cambridge: Polity, 1996) Therborn G. The Ideology of Power and the Power of Ideology (London:Verso,1980) Callinicos A. Making History (Leiden: Brill, 2004), ch. 4 McCarney, J. The Real World of Ideology (Brighton: Harvester, 1980) Lockwood D. Solidarity and Schism (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992), chs 13-15. 3. Rising from the Abstract to the Concrete *Marx, K. Grundrisse (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), Introduction, also http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch01.htm *Marx, K. Afterword to the Second German Edition, Capital, I (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976), also http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/p3.htm Fine B & Saad Filho, A. Marx’s Capital (London: Pluto, 2010) Callinicos, A. Deciphering Capital: Marx’s Capital and its Destiny (London: Bookmarks, 2014), chs. 2 and 3 Bidet, J. Exploring Marx’s Capital (Leiden: Brill, 2007) Arthur, C. The New Dialectic and Marx’s Capital (Leiden: Brill, 2003) Callinicos, A. ‘Against the New Dialectic’, Historical Materialism, 13:2 (2005). 4. Fetishism, Fragmentation, and Totality 3 *Marx, K. Capital, I (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), Ch 1, Section 4, ‘The Fetishism of the Commodity and Its Secret’, also http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm#S4 Geras, N. ‘Essence and Appearance: Aspects of Fetishism in Marx’s Capital’, New Left Review, I/65 (1971) Mepham, J. ‘The Theory of Ideology in Capital’, in Mepham and David Hillel- Ruben, eds, Issues in Marxist Philosophy (3 vols, Brighton: Harvester, 1979), I Rattansi, A. ed, Ideology, Method and Marx (London: Routledge, 1989) Rubin, I I. Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value (Detroit: Red & Black, 1972) http://www.marxists.org/archive/rubin/value/ Lukács. G. History and Class Consciousness (London: Merlin, 1971), ch. 5 http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/hcc05.htm Jameson, F. Valences of the Dialectic (London: Verso, 2009) Please complete the introductory reading before attending the first session. Additional readings will be assigned by the convenor. The course is open to all PhD students interested in Marx and critical social theory. 25 4 .
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