EARLY MARX 101
YEAR LONG COURSE STARTS JUNE 9TH
"Early Marx 101" is a year-long course led by Cadell Last. Throughout the course we will explore the early works of Marx (primarily from the 1840s) as a key foundational transition from the thought of the post-Idealist Young Hegelians, and into the struggles of Marxist political-economy. Consequently this course will not only give you an overview of early Marxist thought, but also insight into the struggles and problems that birthed the Marxist tradition. Throughout the course we will be framing Marxism, not as a final answer or solution for a higher order socialist political-economy, but as a question and a problem that continues to haunt us collectively, as well as a persistent symptom of both left and right-wing political orientations within capitalist society constituted by a dialectic of labour and capital.
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Join Now
Register for the full course on Early Marx 101, which includes 7 full lectures on the foundations of early Marx, including lectures on the Critique of the Philosophy of Right, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, The German Ideology, Wage Labour and Capital, and The Communist Manifesto.
Theoretical Focus
Situating Marx’s practical politics in philosophical relationship to Hegel. Thinking about how the historicity of Hegel and Marx thought is conditioned by the political struggles of their time.
Thinking Marxist practical political project in relationship to the historical waves of emancipatory politics in the last 250 years (e.g. 1776/1789, 1848, 1917, 1968, 2010s)
Analysing the structure of Marxist thought as a persistent question/problem that still haunts the basic functioning of a society dominated by capitalist reproduction.
Meet Your Teacher
Professor Cadell Last
Cadell Last is the creator/founder of Philosophy Portal, the author of Global Brain Singularity, Systems & Subjects, Real Speculations, as well as the co-editor of Enter the Alien, Abyssal Arrows, and Logic for the Global Brain. He has a background in anthropology, history, complexity science, philosophy and psychoanalysis; and he teaches dialectical thinking at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, as well as the foundations of modern philosophy and psychoanalysis at Philosophy Portal. Throughout the first years of Philosophy Portal his teaching has been grounded in Hegel’s primary source texts, and this shift to teaching the early Marx constitutes a continuation of this interest and work. As is well-known, Hegel’s philosophy is a primary influence for the early Marx, and thus a background in Hegel should prove insightful for a deeper investigation of Marx. In this investigation, we seek to think the contradictions between Hegel and Marx, which still seem to cast shadow on our world.
Bonus Portal Sessions
Get access to complimentary Portal sessions featuring live sessions with critical theorists from Revol Press in June, as well as theorist of the commons/peer-to-peer Michel Bauwens in September; as well as recorded sessions from earlier this year with Marxist theorist Chris Cutrone.
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
2025
Online
7pm CET (Central European Time)
Recordings available indefinitely after the live sessions
MAIN COURSE WORK:
Monday June 9th / Session 1: Critique of the Philosophy of Right
Sunday July 13th / Session 2: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
Sunday August 10th / Session 3: Theses on Feuerbach
Monday September 8th / Session 4: The German Ideology
Sunday October 5th / Session 5: The Poverty of Philosophy
Sunday November 2nd / Session 6: Wage Labour and Capital
Monday December 8th / Session 7: The Communist Manifesto
Complimentary Portal Sessions (Live + indefinite recording after the live)
Sunday June 1st / Haunting the Gothic Capitalist Castle ft. Revol Press
Sunday June 8th / Addiction in Digital Capitalism ft. Revol Press
Sunday June 15th / Collapse of the Future ft. Revol Press
Sunday June 22nd / What Is Beyond Capitalist Realism? ft. Revol Press
Sunday Sept 7th / Basic Concepts from Macrohistorians ft. Michel Bauwens
Sunday Sept 14th / The Pulsation of the Commons ft. Michel Bauwens
Sunday Sept 21st / P2P Theory and the Commons ft. Michel Bauwens
Sunday Sept 28th / Next System, What Can We Know? ft. Michel Bauwens
Complimentary Portal Sessions (Recordings from February 2025)
Session 1: What Is Society for Marxism?
Session 2: Contradiction: Ontological vs. Epistemological
Session 3: Capitalism as Social Contradiction
Session 4: Society and Marxism, Today and Tomorrow
Join Now
Join Now
Register for the full course on Early Marx 101, which includes 7 full lectures on the foundations of early Marx, including lectures on the Critique of the Philosophy of Right, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, The German Ideology, Wage Labour and Capital, and The Communist Manifesto.
Post course processes
Philosophy Portal courses not only aim to teach the foundations of modern thought but also attempt to open post-course processes that aim to cultivate your own thinking about the foundations of modern thought in community context. These post-course processes include conferences and anthology processes (for historical reference see the links under the “Conference” tab and the “Anthology” tab on the Philosophy Portal website). The Early Marx 101 course will also be cultivating opportunities for your own presentations, as well as an opportunity to be published in the history of the Philosophy Portal communities publications. These presentations and writings can include direct commentaries and reflections on the primary source materials we will be exploring in the Early Marx 101 course, but also can include commentaries and reflections on The Portal sessions that aim to connect Marxist thought to contemporary communities and projects.
Recommendations for Philosophy Portal Courses:
“I've been studying at Philosophy Portal since its inception, and the educational experience under Cadell's guidance continues to deepen and expand. The Philosophy of Right course and conference in 2024 were particularly rewarding, allowing me to bring insights from the Science of Logic into the realm of politics. The courses build upon and fold in on each other, weaving a rich conceptual tapestry you can explore endlessly. Philosophy Portal goes beyond the passive acquisition of knowledge, offering numerous ways to engage in a living philosophical community through conferences, published anthologies, and in-person gatherings. It is a meeting place for anyone looking to think deeply with others and probe the contradictions of our historical moment, with all its disorientation and strangeness, where questions can unfold without the pressure for immediate resolution. In short, it's a space for genuine philosophy!” - Quinn Whelehan
“Rather than succumbing to the institutional pressures of modern academia to restrain thought to narrow capital horizons, Dr. Last has created a space for the community of alienated intellectuals to gather and to really think.
Philosophy Portal has cultivated a theory scene which is accelerating the connections occuring in the mycelial/rhizomatic discourses at the intersections of art/philosophy/religion in today’s unraveling modern culture. The month long Christian Atheism course I attended was incredibly rich, well-planned and passionately executed. The participatory dimension of the virtual classes (zoom calls/in-lecture chat/post-lecture Q&A’s/anthology process) has helped me to reflect and process the wealth of information from the course materials—and beyond this, the physical conference aspect in the aftermath gives you a chance to make connections more than just virtually if you are so compelled.
IMO Philosophy Portal is charting out the future of learning in a networked and open way which allows for thought to free itself from the conflicts of interest and blindness which now beset many mainstream institutional structures (think of the anti-Marxist bent of many schools, or the demonizing/expulsion of students protesting against Palestinian genocide)
Take one course on something which interests you. You will become hooked.” - Dylan Voisard
“In 2024, I took Philosophy Portal's Philosophy of Right course and participated in the Rosy Cross conference. The content and delivery of the course are extremely professional. Cadell provides lectures to help you understand the Philosophical content. I tried to read the Philosophy of Right on my own before the course and it was very hard. Only by doing this course did I begin to understand what Hegel was saying in the book. The other important point is that Cadell is not just a normal lecturer you find in a college, he is genuinely passionate and lives Philosophy. You can see this in the effort he puts into the courses and the care he has for his students. If anyone is considering taking a Philosophy portal course, I would highly recommend it.” - Max Macken
“I have been an active participant in Philosophy Portal events for about a year and a half now and have enjoyed it deeply. As a psychoanalyst-in-training and with a PhD in Philosophy from the European Graduate School, I fit in well with the folks at the Portal who are delightfully weird, irrepressibly curious, enthusiastic, and reflective. Cadell's emphasis on using psychoanalytic principles for thinking philosophically is exciting and allows the learner to bring the philosophy into their own experience, rather than just learning concepts and argument structures. To my mind, psychoanalytic philosophy allows Being to become more profoundly linked with Thinking and the Portal is a great place to learn to do that.
Cadell is an excellent teacher, incredibly well-prepared, excited to discuss ideas, and produces masses of content for the eager participant to pick and choose from.
I agree with other reviewers that the lectures are long, complex, and cover vast amounts of material, so attending class requires a lot of commitment and endurance from its attendees. However, everything is recorded, so on the off-chance you can scrape out a few hours to return to the material, it's always there.
The best thing about participating in the Portal is the writing opportunities. My PhD program did not support scholarly writing very much beyond the dissertation, so to have active encouragement, peer review, and optional 1:1s with Cadell about formulating papers and research ideas has been invaluable.
Highly recommend The Philosophy Portal for independent study in a great community of like-minded folks.” - Edie Hitchcock