May 2022
A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation
In 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.
Find out more »Grundrisse: Notebooks 4 and 5
“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
In Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We are continuing careful, page by page reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. These next sessions will focus on Notebooks Four and Five. We will complete our reading of the entire Grundrisse during the fall of 2022.
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