If you love capitalism, read Marx.

I'm a bit late getting the podcast out this week, so you get a bonus introductory lecture to Marx and Marxism that I give as Associate Professor of Sociology at Swansea University. The regular pod will be out tomorrow.

To see part 2 of this lecture visit:

[LachlanODea]

That was really well presented, thank you! I find I can’t entirely buy the idea of the materialist basis of history. I can see the truth of it, but is it the whole truth? Cannot the ideas produced by the superstructure also alter the base? Isn’t that what Marxism itself is trying to do? If we look at something like the American Revolution, a materialist view has to say that was entirely due to changes to underlying material conditions (not new ideas), or that it was a nothing burger that didn’t really alter the society’s essentials, it just invented new post hoc justifications for them.

[blueautomata]

Something I keep noticing is how theories of evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary psychology can be applied to Marxism specially to the idea of the base and the superstructure. It seems like Marx was heavy based on Darwin

[musicamaiz]

I've understood dialectic as the manner opposing forces shape each other over time and engagement, but this idea of separation and collapse is new to me. Is the difference related to scales of time?

[blueautomata]

Nice lecture although maybe a bit too basic but it felt like a summary of what I know

[Achrononmaster]

@14:00 whoa! this was cringe and hard to listen through. "We" are spiritual beings, meaning just we have science, ethics, and conscious capacities, therefore we can _know of_ a concept of a Creator (principle of causality is what all science is based upon). Knowing of God, apophatically (it cannot be otherwise for most of us), is not _being a god._
(You'll have to excuse me for thinking it was cringe, subjective opinion of course, I was not raised a Christian, and I mean no disrespect, you certainly maintained my interest.)

[cas]

I like historical materialism I don't like Hegel; Ditch the dialectic and keep the material analysis.

What we have now on the left is the Hegel without the material analysis aka Fascism.

[no._u]

Marx/Engels was brilliant— in doublespeak. I don’t think they even understood how divisive dialectics are in praxis. Plato knew… and Hegel “knew Plato” pretty well. I don’t want to clutter up your comment section, but I think you did a good job of trying to explain EVERYTHING to “kids” in a short speech… but, I personally think teachers need MUCH MORE TIME than they are allotted.