040247 UK Marx for Beginners (BA) (2016W)

Content
Religion and Marxist Anthropology, historical and dialectical materialism, classes, classical and German microeconomics, theories of objective and subjective evaluations, exchange, relative prices, production, Marx’ critique of classical and German microeconomics, Marx’ theory of capitalist economies: commodities, money, capital, surplus value, exploitation, wages, capital income, analysis of circulation, crises, analysis of capitalist production, growth, imperialism.
Aims
Marx’ critique of contemporary economic theory is embedded in his far ranging critique of Political Economy, which consists of anthropological (critique of religion), philosophical (dialectical and historical materialism) and political theories (nation, state, law).This course aims at introducing students to Marx’ economic theories by taking his critique of Political Economy into account. On the basis of selected texts students discuss the problem situations and the problems which confronted Marx, as well as the suggested solutions by Marx and resulting controversies
Methods
Teaching consists in one unbroken 90-minute seminar. Students are required to present one substantial talk (45 min) on the basis of selected texts; also, they have to prepare written answers to questions for each meeting; questions are distributed in advance for every meeting; It is expected that students contribute in a lively manner to discussions at all classes.