Phil 497 (Selected Topics: Hegel and Marx)

Summer 2005

Prof. Sean Sayers

Course Description

The course will involve a detailed study of the social and political philosophies of Hegel and Marx. The approach will be philosophical and will involve a critical engagement with the ideas of these thinkers. The course will involve detailed study of selections from some of their major texts, including Hegel, Philosophy of History, Phenomenology of Spirit, Philosophy of Right; Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology, Communist Manifesto. Questions to be studied will include:

·        Philosophy of history and the idea of progress

·        The concept of alienation; the role of productive activity in human life

·        The concept of freedom

·        Ideas about the ideal society

Preliminary Reading

J. McCarney, Hegel on History, Routledge, 2000

C. Taylor, Hegel and Modern Society, Cambridge University Press, 1979

G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence, Clarendon Press, 1978

S. Sayers, Marxism and Human Nature, Routledge, 1998

Course Outline

HEGEL

·        Hegel's Philosophy in Context

·        The Concept of Spirit

·        History as the Realization of Freedom and Reason ('Introduction', Philosophy of History)

·        Hegel’s Account of  Freedom Liberty ('Introduction', Philosophy of Right)

·        The Master-Servant Dialectic (Phenomenology of Spirit)

·        Ethical Life and  'Civil Society' (Philosophy of Right)

MARX

·        The materialist theory of history (German Ideology Part I, Communist Manifesto, 1859 Preface)

·        Capitalism, Globalization and Progress ('The British Rule in India’ etc)

·        Alienation and Self-realization (Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts, Grundrisse)

·        The Division of Labour and its Overcoming (German Ideology)

·        The Communist Ideal (Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts, 'Critique of Gotha Programme')