On the two hundredth anniversary of his birth, Karl Marx remains, in so many different ways, a controversial figure. One issue, about which there has been heated debate, is the relationship between the circumstances of the first half of the nineteenth century, which shaped Marx’s ideas, and the contemporary validity of those ideas. Some commentators see the fundamental circumstances of a capitalist economy and society, today and two hundred years ago, as fundamentally similar, so that Marx’s insights, even if shaped far off in the past, retain their basic relevance. Others are inclined to feel that ideas formulated in the age of the French Revolution of 1789, of Hegel’s philosophy, and of the very first years of the industrial revolution, might be less easily applicable to today’s conditions. I will approach this debate somewhat differently, by considering three questions – one each from philosophy, economics and politics – that concerned Marx all this life. For each of these questions, basic issues surrounding them changed at different points between 1850 and 1880. Marx’s response to these changes will be compared with how his Marxist successors and other thinkers of the twentieth century responded to them.
Conférence de : Jonathan Sperber (University of Missouri)
Commentaire : Quentin Deluermoz (université Paris 13)
Date : Lundi, 28 mai 2018, 18h-20h
Lieu : Institut historique allemand, 8, rue du Parc-Royal, 75003 Paris
Information et réservation : event@dhi-paris.fr
