You can study Classical Marxism at the ANU (Australian National University)

[ev]

I was on the ANU (Australian National University) website recently and saw that they offered a course in Classical Marxism, I found this pretty interesting..


Heres some information that was on the website (http://studyat.anu.edu.au/courses/POLS2061;details.html).

Classical Marxism POLS2061 - Details

Course Details | Fees and Dates (http://studyat.anu.edu.au/courses/POLS2061;fees.html)
Later Year Course


Offered By: School of Social Sciences
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Subject: Political Science
Offered in: POLS2061 will not be offered in 2009
Unit Value: 6 units
Course Description: Marx developed an understanding of how capitalism works as a guide to political action. His analysis of the relationships between economic and political power, class and inequality, accumulation and globalisation, exploitation and oppression, struggle and social change still provide insights into contemporary societies, despite changes in technologies and the details of capitalist organisation of production (whose dynamics he considered).
Through the course we develop our understanding of key Marxist concepts and their application to current problems. In seminars we discuss important Marxist texts, mainly by Marx and Engels, their historical context and contemporary relevance. Lectures provide background to these texts and their relationship to Marxist theory and practice. Issues we cover include: class; the Marxist conception of socialism as the self-emancipation of the working class; globalisation; alienation; Marx's integration of earlier radical democratic and socialist traditions; economic crisis; the place of revolution in Marx's approach to the supercession of capitalism.
Indicative Assessment: Essay(50-60%) and course diary (40-50%).
Workload: 1 x two hour seminar and one lecture a week.
Areas of Interest: Political Sciences (http://studyat.anu.edu.au/interests/39)
Requisite Statement: Two first-year courses in Political Science, or Sociology, or Anthropology, or Philosophy, or History, or with the permission of the lecturer
Preliminary Reading: Callinicos, A. The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx, Bookmarks, 1995.
Majors/Specialisations: Contemporary Europe (http://studyat.anu.edu.au/majors/ARTSMEURO.html), History (http://studyat.anu.edu.au/majors/ARTSMHIST.html), and Political Science (http://studyat.anu.edu.au/majors/ARTSMPOLS.html)
Academic Contact: Dr Kuhn ([email protected])

Has anyone done a course like this & what does everyone think about such academic courses?

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

I've got nothing against it. Almost every philosopher has enough significant works to fill a course. I wouldn't make an entire course on Karl Marx mandatory, though. What becomes "mandatory" for a field is really a political question. If we want to take philosophy seriously, we make a lifelong commitment. A philosophy degree is essential just the a random sample of the popular viewpoints, then, to give you an understanding of different worldly perspectives. It's interesting, though, that I've encounter Karl Marx multiple times, and I've encountered Robert Nozick once. Although my texts have had anarchist sections, in some cases, my philosophy courses have never explicitly focused on any anarchist philosophers. If it's based on logical relevance, I'd say we should. If it's based on mere convention, the fact that we've never studied pro-fascist views is rather politically biased unless you include Plato.

I've got to hand it to Marx. He gets regular inclusion in academia despite widespread opposition to him. I've yet to have a professor supportive of communism, but they probably wouldn't explicitly state that, either.

[ZeroNowhere]

Sounds like it could be either pretty good or just plain horrible. Not enough detail to make a judgment on it, though.

Edit: Oh fuck, not Callinicos.

[Anarchia]

Well, actually, you can't take it:


Offered in: POLS2061 will not be offered in 2009 And I agree with ZeroNowhere, what the fuck is with Callinicos being the only reading listed?

Still, if I was at ANU and is was available, I'd take it. I wouldn't go there specifically for it though.

[gilhyle]

Oh fuck, not Callinicos.

Quite right

[The Idler]

What's the dirt on Callinicos?

[ev]

Callinicos is only preliminary reading for the course, is there anything wrong with this?

[Die Neue Zeit]

Marx's integration of earlier radical democratic and socialist traditions

This, I think, is the most important aspect of the course. I just hope there's some coverage of Marx's programmatic method.

[Invariance]

Most decent universities typically have units on Marxism. Basically all philosophy courses typically cover his ideas, as well as all political sciences courses. Most economic courses ignore Marx, or only cover him in political economy or the history of economic thought (if they have such a unit at all). From what I understand, Ankara University in Turkey teaches Marxist economics or the Middle Eastern Technical University (although looking at the METU's economic department, it looks pretty standard, i.e bourgeoisie economics). At the very least I know that Ankara hosted a Marxist economics convention a couple of years ago. As I understand it, Notre Dame University in the USA also has an economics department which has some Marxists and post-Keynesians in it. MIT also has units on anarchism/Marxism. The State University of New York in Buffalo also publishes a radical economy journal. The University of Paris (Sorbonne), as I understand from friends who have studied there, also has workshops on Marxism. Even academia cannot escape Marxism. More often than not, however, they teach a strawman Marxism which revolves around the 'failures' of the USSR and the 'totalitarianism' of Lenin and Stalin. I can't speak for universities in the UK or South America, however.

[Vincent]

At Monash, Marxism is encountered in sociology, politics philosophy, Women's Studies, history, economics, law, comparative lit, Jewish Studies and all sorts of other areas. My experience with it in philosophy has been positive; no one 'doctrine' of political philosophy is ever advocated over another, but it seemed to me that Marxism was given a fair go and its critics were also considered properly. Lecturers are actively engaged in presenting an attempt at an 'objective' overview of concepts. The discussion of the 'failure of communism' in China and Soviet Russia is usually reserved for bitter and twisted, and poorly informed, history teachers in the final years of high school in Australia - university lecturers are also researchers, and it would be career suicide to maintain a view that Lenin, Stalin or Mao actually represent the ideas of classical Marxism. But, I should also mention that Monash was the center of student activism in Australia in the 60's and 70's, and prides itself of upholding progressive ideals, and its students generally recognise the activist history of the uni.

Callinicos' book is preliminary reading only at ANU, and it is most likely that students will come across other authors and viewpoints, and will also engage with the primary sources. As a second year subject, its likely that particular views on Marxism will be examined carefully and critically, and no one author's 'book' will be considered as 'the bible' of Marxist thought. I have not read the Callinicos, but I would assume its place in the course, as an introductory reading, has something to do with its readability and conciseness - its interpretation would be considered later, when students have looked at other sources, espcially primary sources. I'm not sure what it's like outside of Australia, but as a student at Monash and a G8 university I have experienced a style of teaching which is both comprehensive and mostly unbiased - interestingly the only bias I have encountered was in studying the philosophy of sex with a 1970's child of radical feminism.

[chebol]

The lecturer for this course at ANU, Rick Kuhn, is a leading member of Socialist Alternative, the main "Cliffite" organisation in Australia (although not a member of the IST). He is also, it should be pointed out, an award-winning author, for his recent book on [edit] Henryk Grossman.

As such, the Callinicos is no surprise - and while I think a course like this is certainly better than nothing, or the anti-Marxist propaganda commonly spewed out in academia - his version of "classical" Marxism may need to be taken with a pinch of salt at certain points.