Syllabus: Living An Examined Life:
Marx’s Challenge to the Good Life in Modern Societies
Roanoke College
Prof. Claudia Leeb
Office: West Hall 121
Email: leeb@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday, 1.30-3.30 pm
Course Description:
What is the good life? How can we live the most meaningful life? How can we fulfill our highest potentials? For Karl Marx our ability to answer these questions has a direct bearing on our ability to understand ourselves as participants in a shared, social world with others. People fulfill and realize their humanity through meaningful work or creative activity, which allows them to contribute to a wider community. In capitalist societies most people are denied such a work activity, which leads to their dehumanization and alienation from their social world. Marx proposed a system of production, which is based on cooperation rather than acquisitiveness and self-interest to counter the negative consequences of capitalism. We will follow the early and late Marx’s search for the good life in order to get a deeper understanding of key concepts coined by him, such as ideology, alienation, exploitation, exchange- and use-value and class antagonisms.
The course will improve students’ ability to (1) formulate and evaluate arguments about ethical positions, (2) describe connections between the course topic and broader traditions of critical reflections on the good life, (3) give an effective oral presentation, (3) write a paper with a clear thesis, cogent argumentation, effective organization, and a minimum of sentence-level errors, (4) understand and articulate central concepts developed by Marx, (5) critically evaluate these concepts (6) examine and evaluate Marx’s theory on the good life, (7) strengthen or revise our own beliefs about what it means to live a meaningful life.
Required Texts: (Available at the College Book Store)
Robert C. Tucker (ed.). The Marx-Engels Reader (second edition, 1978, New York/London: Norton & Company).
John Seed. Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed (2010, Continuum International Publishing).
Diana Hacker. A Writer’s Reference: Roanoke College Edition, 6th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Assigned Texts are available on blackboard:
Larry May, Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, (4th edition, 2006 New Jersey: Pearson) (selections)
George G. Brenkert, “Marxism, Moralism, and Ethics” in his Marx’s Ethics of Freedom (1983, Routledge and Kegan), pp. 3-22
Claudia Leeb, “Marx and the Gendered Structure of Capitalism,” Philosophy & Social Criticism (vol. 33, no. 7, November 2007),
pp. 833-859
Heidi Harmann, “The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism And Feminism,” in Women and Revolution, Lydia Sargent (ed.), (1981, South End Press), pp. 1-42
Iris Marion Young, “Beyond the Unhappy Marriage: A Critique of the Dual Systems Theory,”
In Women and Revolution, Lydia Sargent (ed.), (1981, South End Press), pp. 43-69
Louis Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, in Lenin and Philosophy (2001, Monthly Review Press), pp. 85-126
Jacques Derrida, Injunctions of Marx, in Specters of Marx (1994, Routledge), pp. 1-60
Course Content:
Week 1, Ethical Traditions I
January 18, Tue, Introduction to course
Discussion: oral presentations and writing papers
January 20, Thu, What Does Ethics Concern?, Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, pp. 27-35
Week 2, Ethical Traditions II
January 25, Tue, Utilitarianism: John Stuart Mill, Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, pp. 36-44
January 27, Thu, Deontological Ethics: Immanuel Kant, Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, pp. 45-50
Week 3, Ethical Traditions and Marx’s Ethics
February 1, Tue, Virtue Ethics, Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, pp. 51-65
George G. Brenkert, “Marxism, Moralism, and Ethics,” pp. 3-22.
February 3, Thu, Claudia Leeb, “Marx and the Gendered Structure of Capitalism,” pp. 833-859
Week 4, Marx and Critique
February 8, Tue, Marx, For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 12-15
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter1, pp. 1-14
February 10, Thu, Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction, Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 53-61
Week 5, Ethics and Alienation
February 15, Tue, Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts I, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 66-81
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter 2, pp. 15-43
February 17, Thu, Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts II, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 81-106
Week 6, Ethics and Ideology I
February 22, Tue, Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 143-145
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter 3, pp. 44-72
February 24, Thu, The German Ideology I, pp. 146-163
Week 7 and 8, Ethics and Ideology II
March 1, Tue, Marx, The German Ideology II, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 163-186
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter 4, pp. 73-102
Spring Break: March 4 until March 11
Week 9, Ethics and Exploitation
March 15, Tue, Movie: Made in Dagenham (2010); Director: Nigel Cole
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter 5, pp. 103-125
March 17, Thu, Marx, The Grundrisse I, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 221-250
Week 9, Ethics and Fetishism
March 22, Tue, Marx, The Grundrisse II, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 250-276
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter 6, pp. 126-158
March 24, Thu, Marx, Capital, Volume One, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 294-329, (Guest Lecture)
Week 10, Ethics and Revolution
March 29, Tue, Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 469-500
Seed, Marx: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chapter 7, pp. 159-170
March 31, Thu, Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 525-541
Week 11, Ethics and Class Antagonisms
April 5, Tue, Marx, The Class Struggles in France, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 586-593
April 7, Thu, Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 594-617
Week 12, Ethics, Marx and Feminism
April 12, Tue, Heidi Harmann, “The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism And Feminism,” in Women and Revolution, pp. 1-42
April 14, Thu, Iris Marion Young, “Beyond the Unhappy Marriage: A Critique of the Dual Systems Theory,” in
Women and Revolution, pp. 43-69
Week 13, Ethics and Western Marxism
April 19, Tue, Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State, Apparatuses, in Lenin and Philosophy, pp. 85-126
April 21, Thu, Derrida, Injunctions of Marx, in Specters of Marx, pp. 1-60
Conclusion