Some Questions for Marx
Marx, from The German Ideology (1846, 1932)
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What is, according to Marx, the foundation of human history? What does Marx mean by the “mode of production”?
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What does Marx mean by the “division of labor” in society? Why is understanding it so important to their theoretical approach? What do they mean when they say that "the various stages of development in the division of labor are just so many forms of ownership”?
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What is the relationship between the division of labor, forms of ownership, and human beings' subjective consciousness?
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What is a “camera obscura”? What does this term imply about the possibility of arriving at true statements about human relations. Does the figure imply that we can actually perceive ourselves and the world directly?
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Marx said "Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life" (391). What does he mean? Why would he say this?
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What basic philosophical error does Marx accuse German Idealists like Hegel and Kant of committing?
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Why do "Morality, religion, metaphysics, all the rest of ideology . . . have no history"? What constitutes real history, as Marx sees it?
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In a later section of The German Ideology, Marx argues that "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas"? Why would this be so? This passage of The German Ideology later inspired Gramsci's theories about "hegemony" and other Marxists' ideas about "false consciousness"? Are you familiar with these two concepts? How would the current commonly held beliefs about the virtues of the "free market" and "free trade" be consistent with Marx’s position here? Why is it important for ruling class ideas to be hegemonic?
Marx, from A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)
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How would you respond to Marx’s rhetorical question “is Achilles possible side by side with powder and lead?”
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When Marx claims that classical Greek art has no basis in the modern world, what theory underlies this claim?
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If the basis for the appreciation of classical Greek art no longer exists, why, according to Marx, do we still appreciate it?