An Introduction to Karl Marx - for Liberal Learning

Liberal learning in our times would be incomplete without an introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx, which have the power of knitting together the diverse phenomena across aspects of our society (politics, economics, commerce, entertainment, sports, building and even arts), and thereby helping to explain / decipher our culture.

Marx, of course, is placed in a tradition of thinking and himself positions his discourse in history of society as one of production & exchange of goods, and their control; but his ideas have been the most powerful in the principal movements of our time, towards the margnialized, the oppressed and the unrepresented, including nature.

The lecture is primarily a stimulation for thinking, and a provocation for seeing, thinking about and challenging notions and happenings that one assumes / takes for granted. Students can use the lecture as a launching ground for their own inquiries and further reading about society in its various manifestations.