Machinic Unconscious Happy Hour William Clare Roberts - Marx's Inferno
Jan 21, 2025
William Clare Roberts, a McGill political scientist and author of Marx’s Inferno, discusses his work on Marx and an afterword to a new Capital translation. He traces how Dante, translations, and revisions reshape Marx’s arguments. Conversations cover manuscript research, translation challenges, shifting prefaces, machinery and cooperation in capitalism, and how circulation and valorization alter Marx’s focus.
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Conversion Through Rotating Great Books
- William Clare Roberts recounts his conversion to philosophy through a two-term political philosophy class that rotated major texts every three weeks.
- He describes becoming a temporary adherent to each thinker, which sparked a lasting passion for philosophy and later Marx.
Research In Amsterdam Sparked Deep Marx Study
- Roberts did dissertation research at the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam to work directly with Marx's manuscripts.
- He says digging into those archives made him feel like he was unlocking the modern world.
Formative Reading Group And A Marriage
- Roberts recounts a formative Penn State reading group that read Marx with Hegelians and young Hegelians, which shaped his approach.
- He also humorously notes he later married one of the graduate students from that group.
