Marxism and Sociology

Argumentative Essay # 93771

Philosophy
Political Science > Marx / Engels
Political Science > Political Theory

A critical evaluation of the contribution of Karl Marx to sociological theory.

2,089 words () | 40 sources | MLA | 2005 United Kingdom

Paper Summary:

This paper provides a pragmatic evaluation of Karl Marx's paradigm and his contribution to classical and contemporary sociological theory. It is an attempt to make clear, by philosophical criticism, the value, purpose and relevance of Marx's work. Marxism is a very broad field and this paper does not necessarily cover every single aspect of it. Instead, not sacrificing depth of analysis, it examines only Marx's theoretical assumptions about how society's technological superstructure relates to its respective economic base. In addition, commodity is the main key concept explored since it synthesizes and represents an important aspect of Marxist epistemology and is indeed a concept free from 'pure' theoretical abstraction. Therefore, the paper also establishes commodity as a tangible, practical and relevant concept that is still used as a framework to explain technocracy in high-modernity.

From the Paper:

"Marx's theoretical approach has received critical attention from postmodernist thought sociology which has largely rejected his orthodox social analyses. For instance, Jurgen Habermas, a member of the Frankfurt school argued that one of the weaknesses of Marxist epistemology is the assessment of human evolution as just an economic and technological progress. He insisted that evolutionary progress can be discerned not only in the sphere of technical control, but also in the sphere of social and moral development (How, 2001). In addition, he also suggested that Marx's theory of capitalism is too deterministic since that it encompasses a known end. In this way, Habermas reconstructs and expands Marx's ideas by eliminating notions of evolutionary stages and revolution by moving Marxist analysis to social scientific and critical inquiry. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Anderson, R. A. and Drakopoulou, D. S. and Scott, G. M. (2000) Religion as an environmental influence on enterprise culture - The case of Britain in the 1980s. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research. [Online] Vol. 6, (1) pp. 5 - 20 Available from:http://www.emeraldinsight.com/viewPDF.jsp?Filename=html [Accessed 11 of November 2005]
Bakker, K. (2005) Neoliberalizing Nature? Market Environmentalism in Water Supply in England and Wales. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 95, (3), pp. 542-565
Dickens, P. (1996). Reconstructing Nature. London: Routledge
Ebner, A (2005) Entrepreneurship and economic development: From classical political economy to economic sociology. Journal of Economic Studies. Vol. 32 (3) pp. 256 - 274
Giddens, A. (1973) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory; An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.