Prof Lea Ypi

This course is available on the MA in Modern History and MSc in Political Theory. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is capped at 2 groups.

This course will try to develop an analysis of what we might call ‘moral socialism’ by engaging with authors who have developed the links between the thought of Kant and Marx and with one of the lesser known developments of Marxism in the 20th century: the Austro-Marxist school of thought. Together the group of thinkers associated to the Austro-Marxist movement provided one of the most original developments of Marx’s theory by trying to combine aspects of Kant’s moral philosophy with Karl Marx’s critique of society. We will start with introductory sessions on the relationship between Kant and Marx and the historical context of Austro-Marxism. We will then each week explore different themes relevant to Austro-Marxist thought: from Max Adler’s analysis of the social a priori to Otto Bauer’s discussion of the nationalities problem, from Karl Renner’s analysis of legal institutions to Rudolf Hilferding’s analyis of finance capital. We will also cover the thought of Friedrich Adler and Otto Neurath and engage with criticisms of their theories by contrasting them with alternative Marxist analyses developed at the same time such as those of Lukacs, Lenin or Rosa Luxemburg. The focus throughout will be on understanding and assessing the Austro-Marxist’s complex arguments. The course should be of interest to MSc students taking existing courses on liberalism and justice but also to students in Law, IR, Sociology, and International History.

This course is delivered through a combination of seminars and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours in the Michaelmas Term. This course includes a reading week in MT Week 6.

One formative essay of around 2,000 words.

Bottomore, Tom, and Patrick Goode. Austro-Marxism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.

Rabinbach, Anson. The Austrian Socialist Experiment: Social Democracy and Austromarxism,1918-1934. Boulder: Westview Press, 1985.

Blum, Mark E., and Smaldone, William (eds.) Austro-Marxism: The Ideology of Unity. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Essay (100%, 4000 words).