MARX Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. Rosa Luxemburg The most heroic word in all languages is revolution. Eugene Debs Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comfortable Dorothy Day (Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement) Cheyney Ryan Professor of Law, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus University of Oregon cryan@uoregon.edu [Fall quarter] Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Politics and International Relations Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ United Kingdom cheyney.ryan@politics.ox.ac.uk [Winter and spring quarter] Office hours: Tu 4:00 219 PLC. If you want to meet with me, I urge you to tell me before or after class. [Or send me an email.] [1] DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE Global capitalism is in the midst of its most serious economic crisis since the 1930s. This crisis has many sources, all of which point to systemic problems in the capitalist system developing over the last several decades. Initially, the response of governments followed classical Keynsian lines. (Obama s stimulus package). There is general agreement that these measures have failed; consensus in Washington is now converging on policies that parallel those of Herbert Hoover in 1929-1932, those that drove the American economy into the last great depression. This has lead to an increasingly turbulent political situation in the USA. In the 2000 national elections, former practitioners of witchcraft ran for high office, half the country did now know the religion or nationality of its president, and corporate money (thanks to recent Supreme Court decisions) dictated elections to an unprecedented degree. My impression is that in the USA philosophers have little interest in this, mainly because they are uncomfortable talking about capitalism and class inequality at any length. They would rather talk about the politics of difference than poverty; they would rather engage in vague discussions of democracy than talk about economic exploitation; they would rather talk about micro-power that about who really owns the country; etc. Economic class is not everything; but in a society like ours, it is the starting point for understanding the problems that we are in. And to understand it, we must begin with the work of Karl Marx.
This course will introduce you to the main ideas of Marx, with special reference to the problems of today. It will also provide some overview of contemporary work in Marxist philosophy. [2] EXPECTATIONS OF THE COURSE Marx s work is the starting point for understanding almost all left-wing thinking in the 20 th century, and much left wing thinking today. This is true not only of those who identify with the Marxist tradition, but those whose work is premised on a rejection of traditional Marxism like Foucault/ French Post- Modernism. Yet my experience is that few academics today know Marx work first-hand; quite the contrary, most people s knowledge of Marx including many political philosophers is second-hand, hearsay, and often filtered through those who reject him. I say this because, if you are taking this class, you are expected to take this class seriously. You are expected to attend all classes, do the reading on time, and hand in the written assignments on time. You are expected to participate actively in class discussions. Your final grade for this class will be based on all these factors. No computers or electronic devices of any kind may be used in my class. The reason for this is that I have found it impossible to keep students from surfing the web, text messaging, etc. during class. This has become the academic equivalent of second-hand smoke: it not only detracts from your experience, it is disruptive to all the students around you. It is also extremely distracting to me as the teacher so I have a zero tolerance policy on this. A lot of our readings will be posed on Blackboard. Since you will not be able to look at these on your computer in class, you should print them and bring them to class. Professional information: [3] INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION I am a professor at the University of Oregon and a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom (where I am also a fellow at Merton College). My principal areas of research are issues of war, peace, and international law. I am a founder of the U of O s Conflict Resolution Program (the top-ranked program at the University of Oregon) as well as its Competition Not Conflict program; at Oxford, I am developing a program on non-violence and social justice. I am also a senior fellow of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where I am helping develop its Global Ethics Network. I have been studying Marx for over thirty years. My doctoral dissertation was on Marx s critique of political economy; my advisor was Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the few philosophers seriously interested in Marx at the time. My other advisors were Marx Wartofsky, a scholar of Feuerbach, Tom McCarthy, a scholar of Habermas, and Howard Zinn, the radical historian. Most of the important work on Marx in recent decades has been done in the United Kingdom, which is one of the reasons someone like me spends time over there.
Political background: I got involved in politics in high school during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. I worked for several years in New York with the Catholic Workers Movement and Dorothy Day. I was deeply involved in the anti-vietnam War movement, for which I was expelled from college (I never got a bachelor s degree). At the time, I was editor of the national newsletter of SDS, the major radical student organization. I have been involved in community activism since moving to Eugene in the 1970s, mainly involving issues of war and peace. At the U of O I was involved with starting the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Center on Diversity and Community, the Office of Gay and Lesbian Affairs, and the Judaic Studies Program. In the 1980s I spent a lot of time working with the group, Teatro Nuestro, doing shows about the dangers of pesticides in migrant labor camps throughout the west coast. Personal information: I was born in Los Angeles, moved to New York in high school, and was educated in Boston. I am married to Sandy Stein Ryan, who is from Montana. She is an artist, whose work was recently shown at the Diego Rivera Museum in Guanajuato, Mexico. (Rivera and Freda Kahlo, his companion, were both close to Leon Trotsky.) Her doctoral dissertation was on the marginalization of women in mainstream art; and she was a professor for many years in the Oregon State University Art Department. We have three children, Tammy, Lisa, and Jeff. Books: [4] READINGS Robert Tucker, Marx Engels Reader [second edition]. David Harvey, The New Imperialism. Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain Lewis Hyde, The Gift The book may be purchased at the Black Sun Bookstore, which is located on Hilyard Street between East 24 th and E 25 th (next to Allan Bros coffee). All of Marx s writings are now available on the web, http://www.marxists.org/ -- I want you to read the selections in Tucker, so we will have the same page #. But you can find the unedited readings on the website. Articles: All the articles will be posted on Blackboard. Other resources: I have put bibliographies on Blackboard. One is a very long biblio on Marx and Marxism generally; the other is a biblio on Analytical Marxism.
There is an excellent set of videos by David Harvey explaining the first volume of Marx s Capital (it has now been published as a book as well). It can be found at: http://davidharvey.org/ As noted, many of the classic texts (and non-classic) of the Marxist tradition can be found at the Marxist Internet Archive: http://www.marxists.org/ GENERAL: [5] READING ASSIGNMENTS It is imperative that you do the reading on time and bring the text (or other materials) to class. I periodically tinker with the reading assignments, depending on how we are proceeding in class. WEEKLY: 1. Week 1 Sept 27: The Communist Manifesto Tucker 469-500 [it is also posted on Blackboard]; Cohen, Back to Socialist Basics ; biographical note on Marx; Tucker, 3-7; 681-683. Background to Marx: The critique of philosophy and religion 2. Week 2 Oct 4: Harvey, vii-87; Tucker, 3-26; 143-146; Taylor, Aims of a New Epoch, from Hegel; Schiller, excerpts from Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man. Selections from Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity and Philosophy of the Future; selection from Heschel, The Prophets. What is capitalism? 3. Week 3 Oct 11: Harvey, 87-213;; G: Arrighi, Marxist Century, American Century ; Tucker 203-218; GA Cohen, Back to Socialist Basics. The critique of politics 4. Week 4 Oct 18: Tucker, 26-66; 594-618; Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality. The critique of economic alienation and commodification 5. Week 5 Oct 25: Tucker, 66-126; Hyde, The Gift, 1-72. 6. Week 6 Nov 1: Tucker, 294-340; Hyde, 72-185; selection from Debord, Society of the Spectacle; Sandel, What Money Can t Buy ; Anderson, Is Women s Labor a Commodity? Recommended: selection from Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness. The critique of exploitation 7. Week 7 Nov 8: Tucker, 340-439; selection from Patterson, Slavery and Social Death.
8. Week 8 Nov 15: Tucker, 443-469; selection from Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit [master-slave dialectic]; Anderson, What Is the Point of Equality? Scarry, The Body in Pain, Introduction. The critique of inhumanity 9. Week 9 Nov 22: Scarry, Chapt 3 and 4; reading from Benjamin, Theses on History. 10. Week 10 Nov 29: to be determined. Undergraduates: [6] WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS The written work for undergraduates is two take home assignments, consisting of a set of questions for you to answer. Undergraduates have the option of doing a term paper for the final assignment on a topic of your choosing, but you will have to get my approval; if you wish to pursue this, you should let me know several weeks before the end of the term. The midterm assignment will be handed out on Tuesday, Oct 25, and you will hand it back on week later. The final assignment will be handed out the last day of class, to be handed in the Friday of exam week. Graduates: You will do the take-home midterm, unless you negotiate something else with me. You will have the option of doing the take home-final or a term paper, that focuses on one problem in Marx or one major Marxist thinker. This will be negotiated with me as well. I would like you to speak with me about this by the sixth week of the term.