Can you have something bigger than infinity? Do all things of infinite size have the same size? Are there more real numbers than integers? In this class, we'll develop a rigorous way to think about and answer these seemingly nonsensical questions. (We will cover the cardinality of the natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, and real numbers; talk about Hilbert's hotel; and hopefully discuss the continuum hypothesis. If you are already familiar with this, this class will not be interesting to you.)

Capitalism is often blamed for the recent financial collapse, the greed that pervades modern American culture, and the destruction of culture abroad. But when did this criticism of the market system originate? In the mid-nineteenth century, with the famous philosopher of communism, Karl Marx. Das Kapital is Marx’s (giant) critique of industrial capitalism, explaining how the capitalist exploits the laborers and forces them into cruel inhumane conditions. In this class, we will follow Marx’s argument in Capital, Volume I from his labor theory of value all the way up to his dark conclusion: the workers must rise up, for they have nothing to lose but their chains.