"From Capital to Marx's Philosophy" (excerpts), Reading Capital pp. 1-34; 54-6; 64-9
"The Object of Political Economy", Reading Capital (Chp. 7) pp. 158-64
"Marx's Immense Theoretical Revolution" Reading Capital (Chp 9) pp. 182-194
Recommended
"Contradiction and Overdetermination", in For Marx pp. 87-129
"On the Question of Dialectics", in Lenin: Collected Works vol. 38 pp. 355-64 "Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy", Grundrisse pp. 81-114
A brief note on the readings:
As many of you no doubt know, Reading Capital is tough stuff. Its references range throughout the four volumes of Capital (1-3 + Theories of Surplus Value) as well as the Grundrisse and lesser known tracts. Don't be put off if you don't know all the terrain covered: the virtue of Althusser, for better or worse, is that he is quite precise in getting the mileage he needs out of a self-contained quotation, making his own arguments quite legible even absent the thicket of source texts. That said, "From Capital to Marx's Philosophy" is quite dense; the later sections--quite short, if no less dense--are the payoff, so to speak, but difficult to decipher absent the earlier materials. Mao's "On Contradiction" is relatively brief, and fairly reader friendly.
Given that the theses of "Contradiction and Overdetermination" are likely more familiar, I've included it as a recommended text. (Althusser alludes to and briefly re-visits its key points in the excerpts above in any case.) Ditto what Althusser refers to throughout as Marx's 1857 Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, widely available at present as the introduction to the Penguin edition of the Grundrisse notebooks. Lenin's "On the Question of Dialectics" is quite short, and gets mentioned by both Althusser and (especially) Mao.
The Mao and Althusser can certainly be read on their own terms: Nonetheless, of the recommended materials, the Marx--remarkably valuable in its own right--by far bears most heavily on all the other texts. If you find the Althusser alienatingly opaque and are pressed for time, visiting the Marx may help shed light on the short, later Althusser sections, minus the epistemological subtleties advanced in the early going. If, on the other hand, you find yourself gifted a surplus of time, it's well worth reading Chapter 8--somewhat alarmingly not included here--to see how Althusser arrives at his philosophical conclusions through a tour de force reading that assembles the full host of Marx's economic categories.
All readings are available online at Marxists.org as well as pdfs on the IMWG site. Page numbers to print editions appear above. (Please note that print page numbers don't appear in the online editions, so we'll have to do some juggling in discussion. In the case of the excerpts from Reading Capital Part I, the numbers denoting the numbered sections of the original are somewhat annoyingly erased as well.)
Maothusser: Marx and the Practice of Theory
Required
"On Contradiction", Mao (35 pp.)
"From Capital to Marx's Philosophy" (excerpts), Reading Capital pp. 1-34; 54-6; 64-9
"The Object of Political Economy", Reading Capital (Chp. 7) pp. 158-64
"Marx's Immense Theoretical Revolution" Reading Capital (Chp 9) pp. 182-194
Recommended
"Contradiction and Overdetermination", in For Marx pp. 87-129
"On the Question of Dialectics", in Lenin: Collected Works vol. 38 pp. 355-64
"Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy", Grundrisse pp. 81-114
A brief note on the readings:
As many of you no doubt know, Reading Capital is tough stuff. Its references range throughout the four volumes of Capital (1-3 + Theories of Surplus Value) as well as the Grundrisse and lesser known tracts. Don't be put off if you don't know all the terrain covered: the virtue of Althusser, for better or worse, is that he is quite precise in getting the mileage he needs out of a self-contained quotation, making his own arguments quite legible even absent the thicket of source texts. That said, "From Capital to Marx's Philosophy" is quite dense; the later sections--quite short, if no less dense--are the payoff, so to speak, but difficult to decipher absent the earlier materials. Mao's "On Contradiction" is relatively brief, and fairly reader friendly.
Given that the theses of "Contradiction and Overdetermination" are likely more familiar, I've included it as a recommended text. (Althusser alludes to and briefly re-visits its key points in the excerpts above in any case.) Ditto what Althusser refers to throughout as Marx's 1857 Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, widely available at present as the introduction to the Penguin edition of the Grundrisse notebooks. Lenin's "On the Question of Dialectics" is quite short, and gets mentioned by both Althusser and (especially) Mao.
The Mao and Althusser can certainly be read on their own terms: Nonetheless, of the recommended materials, the Marx--remarkably valuable in its own right--by far bears most heavily on all the other texts. If you find the Althusser alienatingly opaque and are pressed for time, visiting the Marx may help shed light on the short, later Althusser sections, minus the epistemological subtleties advanced in the early going. If, on the other hand, you find yourself gifted a surplus of time, it's well worth reading Chapter 8--somewhat alarmingly not included here--to see how Althusser arrives at his philosophical conclusions through a tour de force reading that assembles the full host of Marx's economic categories.
All readings are available online at Marxists.org as well as pdfs on the IMWG site. Page numbers to print editions appear above. (Please note that print page numbers don't appear in the online editions, so we'll have to do some juggling in discussion. In the case of the excerpts from Reading Capital Part I, the numbers denoting the numbered sections of the original are somewhat annoyingly erased as well.)