The Platypus Affiliated Society organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.
Reading Group Syllabus
Fall Quarter: The reading group takes place 6:30PM - 8:30PM on Tuesdays at Harper 151.
Winter Quarter: The reading group takes place 12PM - 2:30PM on Saturdays at Harper 102.
Spring Quarter: The reading group takes place 12PM - 2:30PM on Sundays at Harper 151.
Fall Quarter
Oct 8. Week K. Radical bourgeois philosophy VI. Hegel: Freedom in history
"When we look at this drama of human passions, and observe the consequences of their violence and of the unreason that is linked not only to them but also (and especially) to good intentions and rightful aims; when we see arising from them all the evil, the wickedness, the decline of the most flourishing nations mankind has produced, we can only be filled with grief for all that has come to nothing. And since this decline and fall is not merely the work of nature but of the will of men, we might well end with moral outrage over such a drama, and with a revolt of our good spirit (if there is a spirit of goodness in us). Without rhetorical exaggeration, we could paint the most fearful picture of the misfortunes suffered by the noblest of nations and states as well as by private virtues — and with that picture we could arouse feelings of the deepest and most helpless sadness, not to be outweighed by any consoling outcome. We can strengthen ourselves against this, or escape it, only by thinking that, well, so it was at one time; it is fate; there is nothing to be done about it now. And finally — in order to cast off the tediousness that this reflection of sadness could produce in us and to return to involvement in our own life, to the present of our own aims and interests — we return to the selfishness of standing on a quiet shore where we can be secure in enjoying the distant sight of confusion and wreckage… But as we contemplate history as this slaughter-bench, upon which the happiness of nations, the wisdom of states, and the virtues of individuals were sacrificed, the question necessarily comes to mind: What was the ultimate goal for which these monstrous sacrifices were made?… World history is the progress in the consciousness of freedom — a progress that we must come to know in its necessity… The Orientals knew only that one person is free; the Greeks and Romans that some are free; while we [moderns] know that all humans are implicitly free, qua human… The final goal of the world, we said, is Spirit’s consciousness of its freedom, and hence also the actualization of that very freedom… It is this final goal — freedom — toward which all the world’s history has been working. It is this goal to which all the sacrifices have been brought upon the broad altar of the earth in the long flow of time."
— Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History
Oct 8. Week K. Radical bourgeois philosophy VI. Hegel: Freedom in history
"When we look at this drama of human passions, and observe the consequences of their violence and of the unreason that is linked not only to them but also (and especially) to good intentions and rightful aims; when we see arising from them all the evil, the wickedness, the decline of the most flourishing nations mankind has produced, we can only be filled with grief for all that has come to nothing. And since this decline and fall is not merely the work of nature but of the will of men, we might well end with moral outrage over such a drama, and with a revolt of our good spirit (if there is a spirit of goodness in us). Without rhetorical exaggeration, we could paint the most fearful picture of the misfortunes suffered by the noblest of nations and states as well as by private virtues — and with that picture we could arouse feelings of the deepest and most helpless sadness, not to be outweighed by any consoling outcome. We can strengthen ourselves against this, or escape it, only by thinking that, well, so it was at one time; it is fate; there is nothing to be done about it now. And finally — in order to cast off the tediousness that this reflection of sadness could produce in us and to return to involvement in our own life, to the present of our own aims and interests — we return to the selfishness of standing on a quiet shore where we can be secure in enjoying the distant sight of confusion and wreckage… But as we contemplate history as this slaughter-bench, upon which the happiness of nations, the wisdom of states, and the virtues of individuals were sacrificed, the question necessarily comes to mind: What was the ultimate goal for which these monstrous sacrifices were made?… World history is the progress in the consciousness of freedom — a progress that we must come to know in its necessity… The Orientals knew only that one person is free; the Greeks and Romans that some are free; while we [moderns] know that all humans are implicitly free, qua human… The final goal of the world, we said, is Spirit’s consciousness of its freedom, and hence also the actualization of that very freedom… It is this final goal — freedom — toward which all the world’s history has been working. It is this goal to which all the sacrifices have been brought upon the broad altar of the earth in the long flow of time."
— Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History
• G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128] [Audiobook]
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
Oct 15. What is the Left? I. Capital in history
- Max Horkheimer, “The little man and the philosophy of freedom” (1926-31)
- Epigraphs on modern history and freedom:
- Louis Menand, on Marx and Engels
- Karl Marx, on “becoming” (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58)
- Peter Preuss, on history
- Chris Cutrone, “Capital in history” (2008)
- Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis” (2010)
- Cutrone, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) today” (2012)
Supplementary resources
- G.M. Tamas, Telling the truth about class (2007)
- Robert Pippin, On critical theory (2004)
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Archaic torso of Apollo (1908)
- Cutrone, Capital in history, video (2011)
- Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
- Being and becoming chart of terms
- Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Oct 22. What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique
- Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926–31)
- Theodor Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
- Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1968)
- Herbert Marcuse, “Note on dialectic” (1960)
- Karl Marx, To make the world philosophical from Marx’s dissertation, (1839–41)
- Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843)
Supplementary resources
Oct 29. What is Marxism? I. Socialism
- Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844)
- Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)
- Marx, The coming upheaval [html] from The Poverty of Philosophy (1847)
Supplementary resources
Nov 5. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848
- Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850)
- Marx, Class struggle and mode of production (letter to Weydemeyer, 1852), pp. 218–220
- Engels, The tactics of social democracy (1895)
- Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850)
- Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
Nov 12. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism
- Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864)
- Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels’s 1891 Introduction)
- Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
- Marx, Programme of the Parti Ouvrier (1880)
Supplementary resources
- Karl Korsch, The Marxism of the First International (1924)
- Korsch, Introduction to Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)
Nov 19. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy
The fetish character of the commodity is not a fact of consciousness; rather it is dialectical, in the eminent sense that it produces consciousness. . . . Perfection of the commodity character in a Hegelian self-consciousness inaugurates the explosion of its phantasmagoria.
— Theodor W. Adorno, letter to Walter Benjamin, August 2, 1935
- Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 276–293
- Marx, “The fetishism of commodities” from Capital, Vol. 1 (1867)
Nov 26. What is Marxism? V. Reification
- Georg Lukács, The Phenomenon of Reification
Dec 3. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness
- Lukács, Class consciousness (1920)
- Lukács, Original preface (1923)
- Lukács, What is Orthodox Marxism? (1919)
- Lukács, History and class consciousness (1923)
Supplementary resources
- Herbert Marcuse, Note on dialectic (1960)
- Marx, Preface to the first German edition and Afterword to the second German edition of Capital (1867)
- Reification chart of terms
- Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
- Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Dec 10. Thanksgiving Break. No session
Dec 17. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy
- Korsch Marxism and philosophy (1923)
Supplementary resources
- Herbert Marcuse, Note on dialectic (1960)
- Marx, To make the world philosophical (1839-41)
- Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, 1843)
- Marx, Theses on Feuerbach (1845)
- Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
- Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Winter break readings
- Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution/Lenin for Beginners (1977)
- Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-19 (1968)
- James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)
- Carl Schorske, The SPD 1905-17: The Development of the Great Schism (1955)
- J.P. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg (1966), [Vol. 1], [Vol. 2]
- Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6
Winter Quarter
Jan 6. Revolutionary leadership
- Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915) [HTML]
- J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
- Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)
Jan 6. Revolutionary leadership
- Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915) [HTML]
- J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
- Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)
Jan 13. Reform or revolution?
- Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
Supplementary resources
- Eugene Debs, “Competition versus Cooperation” (1900)
Jan 20. Lenin and the vanguard party
- Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
Jan 27. What is to be done?
- V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? (1902)
Feb 3. Mass strike and social democracy
- Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
Supplementary resources
- Luxemburg, “Blanquism and Social Democracy” (1906)
Feb 10. Permanent revolution
- Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
Feb 17. State and revolution
- Lenin, The state and revolution (1917)
Feb 24. Imperialism
The bourgeoisie makes it its business to promote trusts, drive women and children into the factories, subject them to corruption and suffering, condemn them to extreme poverty. We do not ‘demand’ such development, we do not ‘support’ it. We fight it. But how do we fight? We explain that trusts and the employment of women in industry are progressive. We do not want a return to the handicraft system, pre-monopoly capitalism, domestic drudgery for women. Forward through the trusts, etc., and beyond them to socialism!
— Lenin, The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution (1916/17)
- Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)
Supplementary resources
- Lenin, Socialism and War, Ch. 1 The principles of socialism and the War of 1914–15 (1915)
Mar 9. Spring Break. No session
Spring Quarter
Mar 24. Failure of the revolution
- Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” (1918)
- Luxemburg, “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)
Mar 24. Failure of the revolution
- Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” (1918)
- Luxemburg, “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)
Supplementary resources
- Luxemburg, “German Bolshevism” (AKA “The Socialisation of Society”) (1918)
- Luxemburg, “The Russian Tragedy” (1918)
- Luxemburg, “Order Reigns in Berlin” (1919)
- Eugene Debs, “The Day of the People” (1919)
- Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
Mar 31. Retreat after revolution
- Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
Supplementary resources
- Lenin, “Notes of a Publicist” (1922)
Apr 7. Annual Convention. No session
Apr 14. Dialectic of reification
- Lukács, “The Standpoint of the Proletariat” (Part III of “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” 1923). Available in three sections from marxists.org: section 1 section 2 section 3
Supplementary resources
- Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
- Commodity form chart of terms
- Capitalist contradiction chart of terms + Organic composition of capital chart of terms
- Reification chart of terms
- Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
Apr 21. Lessons of October
- Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
- Trotsky, “Stalinism and Bolshevism” (1937)
Apr 28. Trotskyism
- Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (AKA The Transitional Program and the Struggle for Socialism, 1938)
Supplementary resources
- Trotsky, “To build communist parties and an international anew” (1933)
- Trotsky, “If America should go communist” (1934)
- Trotsky, “Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay” (1940)
- Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)
May 5. The authoritarian state
- Friedrich Pollock, “State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations” (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
- Max Horkheimer, “The Authoritarian State” (1942) [PDF]
Supplementary resources
May 12. On the concept of history
- Epigraphs on modern history and freedom:
- Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels)
- Peter Preuss (on history)
- Walter Benjamin, “On the Concept of History” (AKA “Theses on the Philosophy of History”) (1940) [PDF]
- Benjamin, Paralipomena to “On the Concept of History” (1940)
Supplementary resources
- Charles Baudelaire, from Fusées [Rockets] (1867)
- Bertolt Brecht, “To posterity” (1939)
- Walter Benjamin, “To the planetarium” (from One-Way Street, 1928)
- Benjamin, “Fire alarm” (from One-Way Street, 1928) [JPG] [PDF]
- Benjamin, “Experience and poverty” (1933)
- Benjamin, Theologico-political fragment (1921/39?)
- epigraphs by Hegel and W.E.B. DuBois on history
- Benjamin on history chart of terms
- Benjamin, Arcades Project Convolute N, “On the theory of knowledge, theory of progress” (see especially p. 471 [N8,1] on Horkheimer on unredeemablility of past suffering)
- Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
![[JPG]](https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/benjamin_firealarm.jpg){kind=link}
May 19. Theory and practice
- Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
- Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
Supplementary resources
- Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
- Commodity form chart of terms
- Reification chart of terms
- Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
- Adorno’s critique of actionism chart of terms
- Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
- Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?”) (1968)
- Organic composition of capital chart of terms
- Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)
- Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
- Adorno, Interview with Der Spiegel magazine (1969)