Michael Heinrich Lecture (3/27) and Workshop (3/28)

Lecture on 27 March - HQ 136, 5:30 to 7pm

Marx and the Marx Ascriptions
Almost everyone seems to know Marx. However, much of this knowledge consists of stereotypes. He is said to have laid the foundation for a comprehensive new worldview, “Marxism”, based on dialectical and historical materialism. He never used these terms. Marx is presented as a theorist of alienation, class struggle, exploitation, the necessary collapse of capitalism, an advocate of historical determinism, eurocentrism, and authoritarian rule in a communist society. Did he really say that? At the same time? In discussing such questions we should bear in mind that in the 20th century each generation knew a different Marx. Many of his writings, now considered the most important, were not published during his lifetime, they only appeared in the late 19th and the 20th centuries. The first publications were not “original”, they bore the stamp of the political interests of the editors and the political conflicts in which they were involved. Only now, with the new Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), we do have a solid textual basis. The lecture will provide an introduction to this new, complete Marx that we can discover in the 21st century.

Workshop on 28 March - HQ 276, 12pm to 3pm

Scope, Methods, and Internal Problems of Marx’s Unfinished Project “Critique of Political Economy”

Registration not required for either event.

With support from The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund at Yale University