Marx and Contemporary Political Philosophy

2019

University of Groningen

The work of Marx offers a perspective on questions of justice and politics that is distinctive from most contemporary mainstream political theory. Rather than focusing merely on the distributive effects of economic activities, Marx has famously raised the question of how to think of the way in which societies organize their reproduction as a system through a specific structure — in particular, focusing on capitalism as a structure of social domination. In this course — which does not presuppose any detailed knowledge of Marx — we will examine the central elements of Marx‘s theory as laid out in his main works, such as Capital, as well as consider the relationship between Marxism and contemporary egalitarian liberalism, libertarianism and republicanism, relating to topics such as exploitation, ideology and the critique of morality. We will also consider the work of significant post-Marxist political theorists on the nature of the state and politics, and finally consider the question of whether Marxian thought offers any conception of politics that is a serious competitor in contemporary political philosophy.