Professor James Vernon
jvernon@yorku.ca

This course provides a survey of some major trends in the history of Marxist philosophy, broadly construed. The first half of the course will be devoted to fundamental concepts in Marx’s mature economic theory, while in the second half we will concern ourselves with the historical development of Marxist and post-Marxist theories of emancipation. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with some of the main figures and concepts of the Marxist tradition, and to critically appraise their application to contemporary social problems and practices.

Courseware, edited by the instructor

K. Marx, Selected Writings (Hackett)

Mid-Term 25%

Term Paper 35%

Take-home Final Exam 40%

Lecture/Reading Schedule:

Thursday, Jan. 9

Intro. to Course; Commodities, Value and Labour

(Selected Writings, pp. 220-236)

Thursday, Jan. 16

Commodities (con’t), Exchange and Money

(Selected Writings, pp. 236-255)

Thursday, Jan. 23

Capital and Labour-Power

(Selected Writings, pp.255-273)

Thursday, Jan. 30

Valorization and Accumulation

(Selected Writings, pp. 274-300)

Thursday, Feb. 6

Marx and Engels, ‘Communist Manifesto’ (Selected Writings, pp. 157-185)

Thursday, Feb. 13

Mid-Term Exam

(Essay Topics Posted)

Thursday, Feb 20

No Class (Reading Break)

Thursday, Feb 27

Marcuse, ‘Some Social Implications of Modern Technology’

Thursday, Mar. 5

Fanon, ‘Concerning Violence’

Thursday, Mar. 12

RAF, ‘The Concept of the Urban Guerilla’ (handout); Guattari, ‘Like the Echo of a Collective Melancholia’; Film Excerpt: ‘Germany in Autumn’

Thursday, Mar. 19

Laclau, ‘Beyond Emancipation’

Thursday, Mar. 26

Bataille, ‘Theoretical Introduction’ and ‘Laws of General Economy’, from The Accursed Share’

Essays Due

Thursday, Apr. 2

Hallward, ‘Communism of the Intellect, Communism of the Will’

This course aims to introduce students to, and encourage them to critically appraise varied aspects within, the breadth and depth of the Marxist tradition of philosophy.

Term Paper

Term paper topics will be posted on the webpage on Feb 13th. All topics will require a critical assessment of two theorists we have studied in light of each other. The paper will combine exegesis of the texts with critical assessment. Secondary research is not strictly required, but is often helpful in making a paper strong, and thus is recommended. I highly recommend that every student discuss their paper approach with me in office hours or on email. Students can come often as they like, but those who bring to my office a 2-page outline of the argument they will present in their paper to discuss, will automatically have 5% added to the final grade of their paper. This can be done twice, and if the second draft is, in my judgment, a substantial improvement on the first, a second 5% will be added. I also very strongly recommend that all students, esp. non-majors, consult the departmental guide on writing philosophy essays: http://www.yorku.ca/hjackman/Teaching/handbook.pdf

Information on essays and late penalties

Essays are due on the day of the second last class, March 26th. All students, however, can have an automatic extension of up to one week for their term paper.  The penalty, however, will be that you will receive a grade, but no substantive comments. After that week, papers will be accepted for 7 more days, with a penalty of 5% per day, and again, will receive no substantive comments. Students who receive no comments, but do not agree with their grade can then petition to have their work re-graded by someone else, and I will support the petition. After April 9th, term papers will not be accepted, and the take-home final exam cannot be handed in late. Exceptions will only be made for a) illness (with MD’s note) and b) death in the family. I must be given 24 hours notice on email for these exceptions to be made, and they are at my discretion, not automatic. Do NOT slip essays under my door and do NOT email them to me; hard copies are not required, and I will not accept them. Departmental requirements demand that all essays be uploaded to ‘turnitin.com’. Pursuant to the Guidelines of the Yorku Academic Advisory Group, students have the right to opt out of submitting assignments to Turnitin. However, if you elect not to use Turnitin, in order to ensure academic integrity and fairness, I will conduct my own academic integrity review which will require one or more of the following: the submission of multiple drafts, the submission of a detailed annotated bibliography, or the submission of photocopies of source documents. I may also require you to take an oral examination directed at issues of your assignment’s originality, ask you to respond in writing to questions about your assignment’s originality, or provide a written report concerning the process of completing the work. The easiest option, in short, is submitting to Turnitin. I will not assign a grade to any essay that has not been submitted to Turnitin or that has not met my requirements for an alternative academic integrity review.

Information on registering for and using turnitin.com can be found here: http://www.yorku.ca/computng/students/turnitin.html.

The course ID for PHIL 3082 is 23334387 and the password is proletariat.

Citations

Either MLA or Chicago Manual styles are fine, but they must be used consistently and clearly. In other words, use only one style, and make it an existent style. If you use secondary sources, they must be properly cited in full, lest you fall prey to the perils of…

Academic Dishonesty

It is YOUR responsibility to know what Academic Dishonesty is, what the penalties for it are, and how to avoid it. Know in advance that I will seek, at minimum, a zero on the offending work, and that the penalty can include your being debarred, not only from York, but from all Canadian universities. In short, don’t do it. If you are remotely unsure about what levels of citation, collaboration, etc. constitute A.D., go to the Academic Integrity web site at York University (http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity), read the section ‘For Students’, and complete the Academic Integrity Tutorial: (http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic integrity/).