Early Marx 101
Starts June 9th
Philosophy Portal’s next course “Early Marx 101” starts June 9th and will extend throughout 2025 offering an extensive overview as well as discussion space to think through the Early Marx in philosophical and political context. We will be attempting to think Marx as situated in philosophical relationship to Hegel, in political context in relation to the major historical waves of emancipatory politics and the death of the Millennial Left, as well as a persistent structural question/problem that still haunts our society dominated by capitalist reproduction. To learn more or to sign up, see:
Early Marx 101Course description:
"Early Marx 101" is a year-long course led by Cadell Last. Throughout the course we will explore the early works of Marx (from the 1840s) as a key foundational transition from the thought of the post-Idealist Young Hegelians, and into the struggles of Marxist political-economy. Consequently this course will not only give you an overview of early Marxist thought, but also insight into the struggles and problems that birthed the Marxist tradition. Throughout the course we will be framing Marxism, not as a final answer or solution for a higher order socialist political-economy, but as a question and a problem that continues to haunt us collectively, as well as a persistent symptom of both left and right-wing political orientations within capitalist society constituted by a dialectic of labour and capital.
Course includes:
- 7 live sessions with presentations and discussions
- Lifetime access to recordings
- Access to live/recorded Marxist or capitalist themed Portal events
- Mailing list for organising course/post-course processes (e.g. conferences, anthologies, retreats/events)
Theoretical focus:
- Situating Marx’s practical politics in philosophical relationship to Hegel. Thinking about how the historicity of Hegel and Marx thought is conditioned by the political struggles of their time.
- Thinking Marxist practical political project in relationship to the historical waves of emancipatory politics in the last 250 years (e.g. 1776/1789, 1848, 1917, 1968, 2010s)
- Analysing the structure of Marxist thought as a persistent question/problem that still haunts the basic functioning of a society dominated by capitalist reproduction.
Schedule:
Start time: 7pm CEST ( / CET)
- Monday June 9th / Session 1: Critique of the Philosophy of Right
- Sunday July 13th / Session 2: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
- Sunday August 10th / Session 3: Theses on Feuerbach
- Monday September 8th / Session 4: The German Ideology
- Sunday October 5th / Session 5: The Poverty of Philosophy
- Sunday November 2nd / Session 6: Wage Labour and Capital (CET)
- Monday December 8th / Session 7: The Communist Manifesto (CET)
*Indefinite access to recordings after live sessions
Early Marx 101Meet Your Teacher:
Cadell Last is the creator/founder of Philosophy Portal, the author of Global Brain Singularity, Systems & Subjects, Real Speculations, as well as the co-editor of Enter the Alien, Abyssal Arrows, and Logic for the Global Brain. He has a background in anthropology, history, complexity science, philosophy and psychoanalysis; and he teaches dialectical thinking at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, as well as the foundations of modern philosophy and psychoanalysis at Philosophy Portal. Throughout the first years of Philosophy Portal his teaching has been grounded in Hegel’s primary source texts, and this shift to teaching the early Marx constitutes a continuation of this interest and work. As is well-known, Hegel’s philosophy is a primary influence for the early Marx, and thus a background in Hegel should prove insightful for a deeper investigation of Marx. In this investigation, we seek to think the contradictions between Hegel and Marx, which still seem to cast shadow on our world.
Bonus Portal Sessions:
Get access to complimentary The Portal sessions featuring live sessions with critical theorists from Revol Press in June, as well as theorist of the commons/peer-to-peer Michel Bauwens in September; as well as recorded sessions from earlier this year with Marxist theorist Chris Cutrone.
The Portal sessions (live):
With Revol Press / Start time: 830pm CEST
- Sunday June 1st / Haunting the Gothic Capitalist Castle ft. Revol Press
- Sunday June 8th / Addiction in Digital Capitalism ft. Revol Press
- Sunday June 15th / Collapse of the Future ft. Revol Press
- Sunday June 22nd / What Is Beyond Capitalist Realism? ft. Revol Press
With Michel Bauwens / Start time: 830pm CEST
- Sunday Sept 7th / Basic Concepts from Macrohistorians ft. Michel Bauwens
- Sunday Sept 14th / The Pulsation of the Commons ft. Michel Bauwens
- Sunday Sept 21st / P2P Theory and the Commons ft. Michel Bauwens
- Sunday Sept 28th / Next System, What Can We Know? ft. Michel Bauwens
*Indefinite access to recordings after live sessions
The Portal sessions (recorded):
With Chris Cutrone
- Session 1: What Is Society for Marxism?
- Session 2: Contradiction: Ontological vs. Epistemological
- Session 3: Capitalism as Social Contradiction
- Session 4: Society and Marxism, Today and Tomorrow
*Recordings from February 2025
Post-Course Processes:
Philosophy Portal courses not only aim to teach the foundations of modern thought but also attempt to open post-course processes that aim to cultivate your own thinking about the foundations of modern thought in community context. These post-course processes include conferences and anthology processes (for historical reference see the links under the “Conference” tab and the “Anthology” tab on the Philosophy Portal website). The Early Marx 101 course will also be cultivating opportunities for your own presentations, as well as an opportunity to be published in the history of the Philosophy Portal communities publications. These presentations and writings can include direct commentaries and reflections on the primary source materials we will be exploring in the Early Marx 101 course, but also can include commentaries and reflections on The Portal sessions that aim to connect Marxist thought to contemporary communities and projects.
Early Marx 101