/lit/ - Literature

Engels' utopian and scientific socialism

>>15447821
Read Hegel's Philosophy of right first (it would also be useful to read the Science of logic and the Encyclopaedia first).
Then, your main interests are to be found in Grundrisse and Capital.

>>15447821
Ernest Mandel has some pertinent introductory texts on Marx

>>15447839
Secondary texts tend to be quite dry and boring, stick to primary at least at first.

This is a good rec. Capital isn't as inaccessible as people make it out to be, so go there when you feel like it.

>>15447821
>where do i start?
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm
Manifesto of the Communist Party
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
The German Ideology, Chapter I
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01.htm
Wage Labour and Capital
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm
Value, Price and Profit
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/index.htm

Once you're done read Vol. 1 of Capital ASAP and then you can just go from the beginning (Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, On the Jewish Question, Paris Manuscripts, and so on).

>do i need to read any prerequisites?
no

>are there any useful secondary materials to look at?
no, but there are many anti-useful ones

>i just want to understand him in an economical/philosophical sense, i am not interested in politics at all
that doesn't matter because such a distinction doesn't even exist for him

>>15447825
based and redpilled

ty all these look like good recommendations
>>15448508
none of those things are good reasons not to listen to someone but if they're sufficient for you then you probably wouldn't understand what they have to say anyway
i am not a leftist but it's obvious that capitalists are the ones who import all the niggers, so it makes sense to be interested in critiques of capitalism regardless of which side of politics you are on
unless you like niggers, that is, in which case no further understanding is necessary - you are already exactly where you want to be

>>15447821
Yes/No. You don't actually need to read Hegel or Ricardo but you should be familiar with their systems

No need for prerequisites. With some exceptions (chapter one of Capital, the Grundrisse) Marx is extremely easy to read and very clear in the points he makes.
I'd say you should start with the 1844 Manuscripts of Paris: those will introduce you to Marx's main project in his later life: his critique of political economy and the comprehension of the forms of power in a capitalist society (alienation, fetishism). Then read the Manifest, because it has some very good points on the nature of capitalism (for example the famous and quoted phrase "all that is solid melts in the air"). From there I'd say you can dive into Capital, because this will be the hardest part, and read a bit of the Grundrisse (for example the part on the method of political economy). If you want to, I can help you a little bit giving you names of a lot of auxiliary bibliography for the first chapter which is the key to understanding Marx philosophy of capitalism and the bridge between the "young philosophical Marx" and the late Marx (the distinction is famous that's why I bring it up, although it's a very bad reading of Marx because it practically ignores this first chapter which is so important).

>>15447821
You can’t understand his economics or philosophy without his politics.