Does anybody recommend any prior reading material to Marx? I started reading Grundrisse and I had to give up after the second section or so because it was a bit rough for me. I couldn't understand any of what he was talking about. My brain was just about melting. Anything at all would help. Thanks.
Any prerequisites for reading Marx?
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Read the most basic of his books. It is good if you have a background on the philosophers he was influenced by, like Hegel, but this is not a prerequisite as much as it is a bonus.
What would be the most basic one?
Read Lenin
I'd say this one has its merits, but I couldn't really tell you since I have not gotten to Grundrisse yet.
It is impossible to understand Marx without fully reading all of Hegel's essential works.
In fact, the Hegelian dialectic proved Marxism to be obsolete. So ignore Marx and stick with Hegel, you'll thank me later.
Try Michael Heinrich's introduction to three volumes of das Kapital. He goes out of his way to water it down and at the same time emphasize the big parts with letters by Marx and references to other works. It should be a fast read then you can continue with the list posted above. Skip his shit about the falling rate of profit though, it's just memes.
Oh, shit! I was reading what was on the advanced section. No fucking wonder. Thanks, user.
Thanks, Ill check him out.
Thanks. I'd be open to reading Stirner actually since I identify as an anarchist. I just am really impressed by Zizek and he's influenced by Marx.
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This is demigod
Thanks.
Is Zizek influenced by accelerationism?
He's all over the fuckin place. I thought his book where he lays out his principal theory about ideology was really fucking awesome. The rest is like the shit I posted, shower fantasies about Focky fistfucking some lewd boi in an Uppsala alley.
The ABC of Communism
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Is it bad that I just jumped right into Capital?
Should I put it to the side and read some of the more basic works first?
I don't believe I'm having any real difficulties understanding it.
What do you think, do you think I should stick with Zizek without reading Marx, or should I go ahead with Marx? I probably would still try to read Marx's easier stuff though.
You should probably tell everyone that you're not me. It can get kind of confusing. I'm the OP.
I think you should get a copy of Heinrichs book off the internet or the nearest library. Afterwards you can decide for yourself how much you need to dip into various ideological schools/flavors of differnet writings of Marx. I highly recommend again that you start with Michael Heinrich, he gives you a really nice base of knowledge and goes out of his way to translate Marx way of writing.
Thanks. I will do.
I already got a copy off of google. Thanks.
Depends on what you plan on reading. Communist Manifesto is pretty entry level, Critique of the Gotha Program is also pretty easy. For other heavier stuff I would definitely recommend Adam Smith and Hegel. Rousseau is also helpful since Marxism has its root in many of his ideas but I wouldn't call them necessary.
No.
read the manga
it's good
forget the image
Hegel, and before Hegel read up on passing of metaphysics and rise of dialectics.
Honestly I got a lot out of reading Plekhanov and Mehring's essays on Materialism when I was starting
Plekhanov is also responsible for a lot of Marx-ism (misunderstanding dialectic, but it might be good training wheels so to speak)
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people here will tell you that Hegel nor Marx ever laid out 'laws of the dialectic' and if there is any such law it is 'immanent critique' rather than Engel's three.
That's why it's important to read some Hegel too.
You could read Kautsky to get the gist of the German Social-Democratic program which is historically important too. They were really supposed to be "Marxist" but Kautsky contributed in his own way to the formation of Marx-ism.
Here's some Hegel
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Master Slave dialectic
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Intro to Logic with Lenin's highlights
also maybe understand the gist of Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity (man's alienated species-essence)
Thanks. I bookmarked all of those.
fuck what everyone here says, read this book. seriously, if you haven't read marx first hand read this book, it covers all of his basic ideas in plain written English explained by a Marxist political theorist with a PhD from the Sorbonne. I read this and it clarified all the basic questions I had when I was getting into Marxism.
Do you happen to have a pdf of it that you could share? If not I might be able to find it online.
Forget Hegel if your goal is to understand Marx. Other people explain dialectics far more clearly than Hegel did and in hundreds fewer pages. It is helpful to understand dialectics before reading Capital, but reading it is going to be difficult either way. Intoductory books make for great lead-ins.
Thanks.
Never mind. I found it.