A close reading of Theses on Feuerbach and On the Jewish Question

Before he wrote the Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels, before he wrote Capital, Marx was busy finding his philosophical and political footing. Initially, he was inspired by a group called the Young Hegelians, who were both indebted to and deeply critical of Hegel’s philosophy. Marx appreciated the group’s criticisms of Hegel, but he soon came to realise that their critique did not go far enough. In the early 1840s, he took aim at the Young Hegelians in a series of articles and manuscripts. Especially significant were his Theses on Feuerbach, a terse dismissal of the Young Hegelian Ludwig Feuerbach, and On the Jewish Question, a polemic targeting Bruno Bauer. But these were not just critiques of his philosophical fellow-travellers. These texts represent Marx’s initial attempts to form his own unique philosophy of history, economics and politics, which came to be known as historical materialism. Many key Marxian concepts and theories emerge in these texts in embryonic form. These text deserve a close reading not just for their seminar role in Marxian thought, but for their philosophical and political relevance in a world still dominated by global capitalism.

How this course works

The participants can initiate their entry into the texts on their own, prior to the Crash Course, but the programme will start with the basics, with a presentation of the historical and philosophical background of Marx, before undertaking a close reading of the texts in the sessions. This course, like all programmes at IST, is designed in view of dynamic exchanges between the instructor and the participants ; therefore interjections, questions, comments and alternative interpretations are invited and encouraged throughout the session, while an interactive time is kept specifically at the end of each study session.