Political Science 6061.03W Social and Political Thought 6200B.03W

Political Science 6061.03W Social and Political Thought 6200B.03W

Appropriating Marx’s Capital, II

Wednesday, 11:30-2:30, 101A McLaughlin College

Course director: David McNally

This course examines major parts of Marx’s unfinished critique of political economy, particularly the texts known as volumes 2 and 3 of Capital. These texts will be read in a highly open-ended way, as works in progress that extend and develop the analysis developed in Capital volume 1. In light of current developments, special attention will be given to Marx’s analysis of capitalist crisis. To that end, emphasis will be placed on analyzing the circuit of capital; the rate of profit; money, credit and interest-bearing capital.

The course assumes a basic knowledge of the key concepts of Capital volume 1 – the commodity, value, labour-power, surplus value, capital and “primitive accumulation” in particular. Those who need a refresher on Capital 1 are advised to read M. Heinrich (below), Ch. 1-5.

Required Texts

Karl Marx, Capital, volume 2

Karl Marx, Capital, volume 3

Michael Heinrich, An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Marx’s Capital

Also highly useful is Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho, Marx’s Capital (available at

Note: The Penguin editions of Capital 2 and 3 are the preferred translations and these will be available in the York bookstore. However, earlier translations of these texts are available online at

Capital 2 is volume 36 of the Marx-Engels Collected Works, and Capital 3 is volume 37.

A very useful “bridging text” between volumes 1 and 2 of Capital is: “Results of the Immediate Process of Production,” published as an appendix to the Penguin edition of Capital, v. 1, pp. 943-1084, and available at:

Some Recommended Secondary Sources

Bertell Ollman, Alienation (esp. Chs. 1-3): excellent on dialectics and method

Patrick Murray, Marx’s Theory of Scientific Knowledge: as above

I. I. Rubin, Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value: classic “value-form” analysis.

Enrique Dussell, “The Four Drafts of Capital,” Rethinking Marxism, v.13, n. 1 (2001), pp. 9-26

Enrique Dussell, Towards an Unknown Marx

Allen Oakley, Marx’s Critique of Political Economy: Intellectual Sources and Evolution

John Weeks, Capital and Exploitation

David Harvey, The Limits to Capital

Ben Fine and Laurence Harris, Rereading Capital

Alfredo Saad-Filho, The Value of Marx: Political Economy for Contemporary

Capitalism

Trevor Evans, “Marxian Theories of Credit Money and Capital,” International

Journal of Political Economy, v. 27, n. 1 (1997), 7-42

Claus M. Germer, “Credit Money and the functions of Money in Capitalism,

International Journal of Political Economy, v. 27, n. 1 (1997), 43-72

Course Grading Scheme

Short expository paper 25%

Final paper 45%

Class participation 30%

COURSE OUTLINE

January 9 – COURSE INTRODUCTION

January 16 – HISTORY, DIALECTICS, METHOD AND MARX’S CAPITAL

Readings: M. Heirich, Ch. 1-2; and Bertell Ollman, Alienation, pp. 3-42 (Chapters 1-3): available online at

You may also want to start the reading for January 23 (below)

January 23– THE CIRCUITS OF TOTAL CAPITAL

Readings: Capital 2, Ch. 1-4; Heinrich, Ch. 6; Fine and Saad-Filho, Ch. 4

January 30 – TEMPORAL FORMS: CIRCULATION, TURNOVER AND PRODUCTION TIME

Readings: Capital 2, Ch. 5-14

FEBRUARY 6 – REPRODUCTION OF THE TOTAL SOCIAL CAPITAL

Readings: Capital 2, Ch. 18, 20, 21; Fine and Saad-Filho, Ch. 5

FEBRUARY 13 – FORMATION OF THE RATE OF PROFIT

Readings: Capital 3, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.1

FEBRUARY 20 – READING WEEK

FEBRUARY 27 – FORMATION OF THE AVERAGE RATE OF PROFIT

Readings: Capital 3, Ch. 8, 9, 10, 11; Fine and Saad-Filho, Ch. 8

MARCH 6 – THE TENDENCY FOR THE RATE OF PROFIT TO FALL

Readings: Capital 3, Ch. 13, 14, 15; Heinrich, Ch. 7; Fine and Saad-Filho, Ch. 9

MARCH 13 – MONEY AND INTEREST-BEARING CAPITAL

Readings: Capital 3, Ch. 16, 19, 20-24; Fine and Saad-Filho, Ch. 11

MARCH 20 – CREDIT AND FICTITIOUS CAPITAL, 1

Readings: Capital 3, Chs. 25, 27-33, 35; Heinrich, Ch. 8; Fine and Saad-Filho, Ch. 12

MARCH 27 – CAPITALIST GROUND-RENT

Readings: Capital 3, Ch. 37, 38, 45, 46, 47

APRIL 3 – THE FETISHISM OF CAPITAL

Readings: Capital 3, Ch. 48, 50, 51; Heinrich, Ch. 10

Optional Session: APRIL 10 – MARX AND THE CURRENT GLOBAL CRISIS OF CAPITALISM

Readings: TBD, based on student interests

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