Learning Objectives

• discuss the historical context of Marx's writing;
• define and discuss the dialectic as a philosophical perspective, including how it differs from other approaches and how it focuses Marx's analysis;
• elaborate on Marx's concept of human nature and its centrality to his criticism of capitalism;
• discuss Marx's concept of labor and its role in capitalism;
• identify the major contradictions that underlie capitalism and understand the role of contradiction in historical change;
• define and relate Marx's forms of value;
• define exploitation and competition, and describe their roles in the fall of capitalism;
• identify and elaborate on the different ways in which the contradictions of capitalism are obscured;
• define and discuss the notion of historical materialism, its explanation of social change, and its underlying concepts; and
• describe and elaborate on the foundations and orientations of Marx's theory.