Aristotle, Hegel and Marx: Michael Lazarus In Conversation with Bruno Leipold

Karl Marx gave us not just a critique of the political economy of capital but a way of confronting the impoverished ethical quality of life we face under capitalism. Interpreting Marx anew as an ethical thinker, Absolute Ethical Life provides crucial resources for understanding how freedom and rational agency are impacted by a social world formed by value under capitalism, with consequences for philosophy today.

Michael Lazarus situates Marx within a shared tradition of ethical inquiry, placing him in close dialogue with Aristotle and Hegel. Lazarus traces the ethical and political dimensions of Marx’s work missed by Hannah Arendt and Alasdair MacIntyre, two of the most profound critics of modern politics and ethics. Ultimately, the book claims that Marx’s value-form theory is both a continuation of Aristotelian and Hegelian themes and at the same time his most distinctive theoretical achievement.

In this normative interpretation of Marx, Lazarus integrates recent moral philosophy with a historically specific analysis of capitalism as a social form of life. He challenges contemporary political and economic theory to insist that any conception of modern life needs to account for capitalism. With a robust critique of capitalism derived from the determinations of what Marx calls the “form of value,” Lazarus argues for an ethical life beyond capital.

Michael Lazarus will be joined in conversation with Bruno Leipold. We expect the conversation to last from around 45 minutes to an hour, followed by an open discussion with the audience.

Our Speakers:

Michael Lazarus is Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. Before coming to King’s, he was Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University and Deakin University Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute. He holds a PhD in Politics from Monash University. His research covers major themes and thinkers in political theory, political economy and moral philosophy.Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx, published by Stanford University Press, is his first book. He is currently working on a second book project related to the ideas of labour, money and colonialism in Adam Smith and G.W.F. Hegel. In addition to his many scholarly publications, he regularly writes for non-academic venues.

Bruno Leipold teaches at the London School of Economics. He works on the thought of Karl Marx, the republican political tradition, democratic theory and nineteenth-century political thought. He is the author of Citizen Marx (Princeton University Press, 2024) and the co-editor of Radical Republicanism (Oxford University Press, 2020). Before coming to the LSE, he held post-doctoral positions at The New Institute, the European University Institute and the Goethe University Frankfurt, and he received his DPhil from the University of Oxford.

As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available.

If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.

Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.