I’m basically center-left and a market socialist who supports multi-party politics and democracy, and I wish to broaden my horizons on Marx. Sometimes I tell myself “I gotta study Marx”, but I can’t.
I also need help internalizing what I’ve studied about Marxism and incorporate in my political views.
Any answer is appreciated. Thank you!
Maybe listen to some lectures on Marx?
There’s also tons of books with selected and annotated readings of Marx and dialectical materialism, which might make tackling the actual books easier. I remember a book that went over all of philosophy and history through a Marxist lens. It was being recommended a lot as an approachable first book because it doesn’t assume the reader is familiar with complicated language or other concepts. Don’t remember the author, but I remember it being an easy read.
Do you have any recs?
Dr Richard Wolff’s YouTube channel has a lot of lectures introducing Marx’s theory of value and surplus value, that could be a good start
What’s your method of studying?
Found the book I was thinking about: it’s Georges Politzer elementary principles of philosophy: https://c.encryptionin.space/epubs/elementary-principles-of-philosophy/
I would recommend Maurice Cornforth’s Materialism and the Dialectical Method instead. Politzer makes errors regarding dialectics, contradiction, and the negation of the negation. If you want to read/recommend Politzer’s work you should follow it up with On Contradiction.
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Oh, good to know. As I said, I started reading Politzer and it was treading ground I had already approached through other texts, so I didn’t go on, but it’s a shame he misses those points because the writing is very approachable (as far as philosophy goes)
What’s your method of studying Marxism?