Marx and Hegel
Grundrisse: The Chapter on Money (The first two notebooks)
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participants“Forces of production and social relations - two different sides of the development of the social individual - appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high...” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse
Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation: A discussion with Marcello Musto and Michael Hardt
On-Line via Zoom You will receive Zoom link by email before the event., NYThe event marks the publication of “Karl Marx’s on Alienation,” edited by Marcello Musto. This is an essential volume. The introduction written by Marcello provides a guide to the concept of alienation prior to Marx, Marx's essential thought and writings over three periods of his working life. This brief quote from Volume Three of CAPITAL is one of many presented and discussed: “The realm of freedom really begins only where labor determined by necessity and external expediency ends; it lies by its very nature beyond the sphere of material production proper. Just as the savage must wrestle with nature to satisfy his needs, to maintain and reproduce his life, so must civilized man, and he must do so in all forms of society and under all possible modes of production. This realm of natural necessity expands with his development, because his needs do too; but the productive forces to satisfy these expand at the same time. Freedom, in this sphere, can consist only in this, that socialized man, the associated producers, govern the human metabolism with nature in a rational way, bringing it under their collective control instead of being dominated by it as a blind power; accomplishing it with the least expenditure of energy and in conditions most worthy and appropriate for their human nature. But this always remains a realm of necessity. The true realm of freedom, the development of human powers as an end in itself, begins beyond it, though it can only flourish with this realm of necessity as its basis. The reduction of the working day is the basic prerequisite.” —Karl Marx
Come join Michael Hardt and Marcello Musto as they discuss with each other and those present from this essential volume for study—and practice.
The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros
On-Line via Zoom You will receive Zoom link by email before the event., NY“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros
A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation
On-Line via Zoom You will receive Zoom link by email before the event., NYIn this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society.
Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit
On-Line via Zoom You will receive Zoom link by email before the event., NYWith Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel's book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time.
Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsAn ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx's Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable "laboratory" in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed "Fragment on Machines."
Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsClose reading and discussion of Marx's magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP's Capital Studies Group.
Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time.
Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsAn ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx's Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable "laboratory" in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed "Fragment on Machines."
Summer with Hegel: The Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA seven-week summer course with Alex Steinberg that concludes our ongoing studies of Hegel's mysterious work, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will do a close reading of the Preface to the Phenomenology , a work that can be read on its own and is considered the most succinct and comprehensive statement of Hegel's philosophy.
Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society
Video available on YouTubeA video of this March 26, 2024, event is available on the MEP's YouTube channel. Michael Heinrich presents his biography-in-progress of Karl Marx, which has already gained glowing reviews from Marxist scholars the world over. In the first volume published in English by Monthly Review Press, Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society, Heinrich ... Read more
Hegel for Radicals: The Science of Logic II
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe MEP's recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues our reading of Hegel's magnum opus, The Science of Logic, Part II. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx's Capital. Alex Steinberg guides participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel's works.