Men of Ideas (EP02): Rick Roderick on “Marx”

Details

Robert Paul Wolff is a great lecturer, and has a great series, here:

Marx's Critique of Capitalism Lecture Series
→ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC5GAeBZerO9Rlj5HDcfGEVcqXtaULrNe

But it's slow and has a lot of lard. So I started cutting and pasting the dense bits from the first three videos. L1 situates Marx historically and covers his importance, erudition, and unusual powers of penetration. L2 is mostly the 1844 Manuscripts and alienation. And L3 unpacks the LTV, Ricardo, and Marx, and walks us through the math using a simplified model.

It was killing me. And then suddenly … I slapped my head with greater force than ever before! For I then remembered that Rick Roderick, the Smithsonian’s “Professor of the Year,” did a Marx lecture for The Teaching Company in 1990. A lecture so good it was being passed around the US Congress (really) and he was getting letters from congressmen, including Orrin Hatch.

In this week’s episode, we will be covering Roderick’s astounding lecture on Marx.

Roderick ran Duke University’s famous MARXISM AND SOCIETY PROGRAM up to nearly 3000 members, was debating everyone and anyone on campus, advocating for campus workers and Black faculty, organizing anti-war protests, holding late-night Situationist reading groups, and was by far the most popular professor on campus. (Hence his being fired in 1993.)

The lecture is mesmerizing and infinitely enjoyable—equal parts profound, disturbing, and hilarious. It is called “Hegel and Modern Life,” but it is really about Marx. This video is part of a series called The Philosophy of Human Values, and it was the series that launched “The Teaching Company” (called “The Great Courses” today). It is Lecture Five from that series.

And NEXT SESSION (April 7) we have an even greater treat, and the perfect follow up. HARRY CLEAVER—America's greatest living Marxian economist—will be here and will take all questions.

METHOD

Invite family and friends over and watch this week’s video.
Make a list of questions—the hard and “stupid” ones you could never ask before because, as Jeff reminded us, there was nobody with THAT level of expertise on hand to answer them.

LINK
Rick Roderick: “Hegel and Modern Life”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MsNyR-epBM&list=PL6676C3E8A487FEE6&index=5

FULL PLAYLIST

Week 01. Isaiah Berlin on “Introduction to Philosophy”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vib2rqJKS08

Week 02. Rick Roderick on “Marx” (Hegel and Modern Life)
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MsNyR-epBM&list=PL6676C3E8A487FEE6&index=5

Week 03: Special Event—LIVE WITH HARRY CLEAVER
(VIDEO TBA)

Week 04. Herbert Marcuse on “Frankfurt School”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KqC1lTAJx4

Week 05. William Barrett on “Martin Heidegger“
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27bo4FMP3vo

Week 06. Anthony Quinton on “Wittgenstein”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6gocvGMWDs

Week 07. A. J. Ayer on “Logical Positivism”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwVykyg7wgI

Week 08. Bernard Williams on “Linguistic Philosophy”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVY6t-DaeZw

Week 09. R. M. Hare (N/A, substituting Hare vs Singer)
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgVoaJ_4Vg8

Week 10. Willard Van Orman Quine on “Quine”
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVFR1qJAyf0