Paper Topics for Marx's Materialism Seminar Some standard biographies of Marx: *** Jerrold Seigel, Marx's Fate: The Shape of A Life, Penn State U. P., University Park, 1978 *** David McLellan, Karl Marx: His Life and Thought, Harper Colophon, New York, 1973 *** Franz Mehring, Karl Marx: The Story of His Life, E. Fitzgerald, trans, Covici-Friede, New York, 1935 *** Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Karl Marx: A Biography, Progress, Moscow, 1973. I. Ideology is or is not false consciousness. Engels defined ideology as false consciousness (Letter to F. Mehring, July 14, 1893). Various authors defend or attack this view as an account of Marx on ideology. Choose one of them and choose and appropriate chapter or two, do a critical exposition and evaluation of it as an account of Marx's view. Given the importance of this topic, two students may do this one, choosing different books. *** Christopher Pines, Ideology and False Consciousness : Marx and His Historical Progenitors, SUNY, 1993. Argues that Engels was right. *** Joe McCarney, The Real World of Ideology, Harvester Press, 1980. Argues that Engels was wrong. *** David McLellan, Ideology, U. of Minnesota Press, 1986. Argues that Marx might have agreed with Engels earlier, not later. Other appropriate works on ideology in Marx: *** John Mepham, "The Theory of Ideolgy in Capital", in J. Mepham and D.-H. Ruben, Issues in Marxist Philosophy, Volume III, Epistemology, Science, and Ideology, Humanities Press, 1979. *** Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction, Verso Press, 1991. Chapter 3. II. Engels' influence on Marx on the issue of natural science and materialism. Study the letters that mention science, nature, geology, chemistry, physiology, Darwin or materialism in volumes 38 through 47 of the Collected Works--they all have good indices. Trace the influence of Engels on Marx, and vice versa, on these topics. What are they concluding? Who is influencing whom and how? III. Marx on Wagner on practice. Read Marx's "Marginal Notes on Adolph Wagner's Textbook of Political Economy, Collected Works, vol. 24, pp. 531 - 559. Give a critical exposition and compare with Marx's views on practice in the German Ideology and "Theses on Feuerbach." IV. Against Productive Forces Determinism: Richard W. Miller, "Producing change: work, technology, and power in Marx's theory of history," in After Marx, edited by T. Ball and J. Farr, Cambridge U. P., 1984. Argues that Marx is not a productive forces determinist. Give a critical exposition and evaluation. V. On the 1859 Preface: Compare and contrast three or more of the following analyses of the famous 1859 Preface to Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy: *** Melvin Rader, Marx's Interpretation of History, Oxford U. P, 1979, chaps 1 and 2 (be sure to include this one) *** L. Kowlakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, Volume I, The Founders, Oxford U. P., 1978, Chapter 14 *** W. Suchting, Marx: An Introduction, New York U. P. , 1983, pp. 109 - 110. *** O. Ruele, Karl Marx: His Life and Work, trans. by E. and C. Paul., Viking Press, New York, 1929, pp. 312 - 319. You can add other choices if you find them appropriate or treat Rader only, but in detail. VI. Marx on Substance: Scott Miekle, "History of Philosphy: The metaphysics of substance in Marx," in T. Carver, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Marx, Cambridge U. Press, 1991, pp. 296 - 319. An Aristotilean take on Marx. Do a critical exposition of this work or a chunk of it. Be most critical of what it attributes to Marx. VIII. A Frankfurt School take on Materialism: Max Horkheimer, "Materialism and Metaphysics," in Critical Theory: Selected Essays. Continuum Publishing, New York, 1992. This is an account of materialism as a point of view hostle to metaphysics. Horkheimer does not try to prove that this was Marx's view, but you assignment (if you choose to accept it, Jim---otherwise this topic will self-destruct in 5 seconds) is to give an expostion of the article and then answer the question of whether this is a plausible reconstruction of Marx's view at some point in his career. It may help to look at Horkheimer's essay on the Social Function of Philosophy in the same book. IX. A Frankfurt interpretation of Marx: H. Marcuse, Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory, Beacon Press, Boston, 1960, pp. 273 - 322, 332, 398 - 401. Give an expostion of the article and then answer the question of whether this is a plausible reconstruction of Marx's view at some point in his career. You need not discuss every issue here. Concentrate on materialist issues: objective laws, inevitability, independent nature , happiness, etc. Be critical of what it attributes to Marx, especially where he appears to contradict Marx (p. 317). X. A Productive Forces Determinist Interpretation of Marx: G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense, Princeton U. P., 1978. The main argument is in chapter 6, but look at least at chaps 2 and 4 as well, for evidence and key concepts. Might need other some other parts, too. XI. A Soviet interpretation of early Marx: T. I. Oizerman, The Making of the Marxist Philosophy, Progress, Moscow, 1981. Chapts 8 & 9, which combat "anti-Marxist" interpretations of the 1844 MSS would be a good choice, but other chapters may work instead. XII. Marx on Social Ontology, Causation and Agency: Carol Gould, Marx's Social Ontology: Individuality and Community in Marx's Theory of Social Reality, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1978. A very interesting, clearly written book. Try out Chapter I or III. XIII: Another take on the Doctoral Dissertation: Pick someone that Stanley mentions in his "Marxism of Marx's Doctoral Dissertation,: Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 33, Number 1, pp. 133 - 158, but with whom he disagrees. Maybe Thomas? XIV: More Schmidt: We will do a little more of Schmidt's The Concept of Nature in Marx, New Left Books, London, 1971. We will look at comments on the Holy Family on p. 30ff. You already have a page of excerpts in packet III. Other parts of the book, perhaps chapter 3, would be suitable for your paper. XV: A structuralist take on Marx: L. Althusser, "Contradiction and Over-determination, in For Marx, Vintage, New York, 1970. Not an easy essay. "On the Materialist Dialectic," in the same book may help you. XVI: Marx's political activities and theories as a guide to historical materialism: A. Gilbert, Marx's Politics: Communists and Citizens, State University of New York, 1981. This book argues that Marx's own political activity and his political theories essential information for interpreting Marx's more general theories. Chapter 8 on the Communist Manifesto is particularly interesting, but the main argument is in other chapters. XVII: Marx's Definition of Freedom: In the German Ideology, Marx gives a materialist definition of freedom as power over the circumstances which determine you. He attacks the idealist conception as an imaginary freedom of the spirit. Dig out Marx's positive view and his critique of the idealist view, and critically evaluate both. Some key pages: 254, 302, 311, 328, 438, 460, all in the Collected Works, vol. 5. Other pages will be necessary too, of course. XVIII: Marx on Popular Materialism: Marx (and Engels) on Buechner, compared to Buechner himself (Capital footnote on abstract materialism of natural scientists). Buechner is in English ("Force and Matter"). Appearantly Vogt is not. Moleschott is available only in French or German. Marx borrowed "circulation of matter" for Moleschott, but praises his opponent, Leibig in Capital footnotes.