Karl Marx Continuation Of The Enlightenment Sociology Essay

Karl Marx Continuation Of The wisdom Sociology EssayKarl Marx is regarded as one of the lineics of sociology. His sociable thought, considered one of the most Copernican social theories, was a gentlemans gentlemankinditarian theory, concentrated on the condition of nine and a place of individual in social structure. Marx is known as one of the greatest ideologists of the nineteen light speed. His semi semipolitical theory was revolutionary. As a sociologist though, he is regarded to be a great heir of pre wisdom1, using and developing key plans of the xviii century thinkers. This subject is aimed to discuss Karl Marx theory in comparison to the Enlightenment philosophy. I willing try to answer a question to what extend Marx work hereditary from the Enlightenment thinkers? In align to that I will discuss the key constructs of the Enlightenment that were further developed in Marxs works. In the following part of the paper I will comp ar the estimations of the xviii c entury thinkers with Marx theory, in regard to nonions of progress, social structure, religion, science, materialism, convey and individualism.Social phylogeny, progress and social changeThe theory of social development and progress was the key concept of the Enlightenment2. The experience of Renaissance recovery from the dark ages, rediscovery of antique philosophy, the expansion of colonialism and exploration of non-European cultures, violated established club and perish to expansion of new ideas doubting tradition. The Enlightenment recognized that human history changes and that societies experience material and mental, moral or philosophical progress. It became clear, that modernity is just other stage of development, that does not booster cable the end of history, but might be as well a beginning of some better, new society. Eighteen century thinkers considered reason as the leading force of change, believing, that human knowledge and consciousness may develop linearl y. Since the Enlightenment was an age of science and reason, philosophers tend to classify and order possessed knowledge. That lead to a few theories of historical stages development of societies that arranged historical periods in progressive order3.Marx inherited from the Enlightenment that linear and deterministic perspective on development of societies, building his theory on the idea of progress. In his works he wrote more or less successive stages of development of societies primitive society, feudalism, capitalism (bourgeois formation), socialism and communism. He abandoned the concept of reason as the leading force of progress, though. For Marx the key force of development was will power and mode of production acclivitous from it. HeEach of the stages presented different social relations, policies, politics and consciousness entirely of which resulting from sparing relations. The mode of production representing each of historical formation of society was regarded as a base, and resulted in different superstructures culture, religion and politics. Every stage of history was more complex than another and lead to the next one. For Marx it meant that the history of all societies is inevitable and must lead by dint of the said(prenominal) phases.The Enlightenments attachment to the notion of progressive development of societies lead to the ideas of future utopia final, goal stage of social evolution. It was a very optimistic concept of history, beginning in dark, oppressive periods of the past, through ambiguous and chaotic modernity, leading to some enlighten, better and just future. Such utopian vision was described by Condorcet, for whom future society would prevail tyranny by changing tradition and superstition into reason4. Delany wrote of the Enlightenment as fictitious characterized by a authoritative utopianism, which was a reflection of the belief in the promises of modernity to bring about freedom. Unlike earlier social thought, it di splayed a great belief in the power of human action to shape the future5. The same was true for Marx, who saw communism as the perfect and most of all just, social system. For Marx the end stage of human history communism represented the most desired and final phase of human development. As Sideman wrote Marx never gave up his Enlightenment faith in the advance of a new date of reference6.But contrary to the Enlightenment philosophers, for Marx, the utopia was not to be obtained through evolution and development of reason, but through revolution of working(a) class. The idea of revolution was not present in eighteen century before the experience of French revolution. Though it is sad, that the Enlightenment prepared the ground for the rebuff in France, works of eighteen century thinkers did not appeal to force or violent change. Marx shared out the romantic vision of revolution with socialist thinkers and activists livelihood French strife. Moreover, unlike his eighteen cen tury ancestors, Marx sought emancipation in p personatariat the working class of modernity. The Enlightenment was an age of intellectuals, giving special role to philosophers in the process of development of society7. In eighteen century thought, reason had the emancipatory force. Marx violent vision of revolution did not reserved place for intellectuals, though Marx was one of them.Social structureThe Enlightenment was a period of a great expansion of egalitarian theories. The idea of natural laws developed and notion of comparison had spread. Eighteen century philosophers attempted to find and describe origins of social order as well as discover best social conditions to maintain and din individual freedom. Especially the latter freedom, understood as unconstrained development and expansion of reason was an important issue in the theory of state and governance. The Enlightenment cherished the idea of liberated individual in the society free from state, church and other corp orate forms of organizations. To reconcile the concepts of state and freedom, the idea of civil society was developed. Individuals became citizens residents of a state that had their natural, internal rights, individuals who through that civil rights imbibeed freedom. Though human beings were not equal, especially because of different kinds and sizes of ownership, they had the potential of equality internalized through their natural, inalienable rights.For Marx idea of equality was a goal of the development of societies. Contemporary social structure was far from egalitarian one. To describe social structure Marx used a concept of class as sets of people or parts of society that differ by the effective control over the means of production and property ownership8. The class designated people who lived in standardised conditions. For bourgeois stage of development social structure was basically dichotomous, consisting of two classes owners (capitalists) and workers. Since individu als within one class shared alike economic speckles they as well as shared the same interests. Individuals from different classes, on the other hand, remained in permanent conflict as they interests were opposite. For in Marx theory class structure is a structure of permanent class-conflict. As E.C. Cuff and others denotative it Since the inequality between the owning class and the labouring class is not simply an economic one, narrowly defined, but involves a social relationship of power and control, the difference of interest between these classes refers to freedom and further The conflict of interest between owning and labouring classes is, then, a conflict over power and freedom.9Once again Marx theory rejected peaceful and optimistic assumptions of the Enlightenment.Ideologies and religionThe end of the Middle Ages ended the era of gods laws and theological explanation of social order. The Enlightenment separated religion from politics. Eighteen century brought to lifetim e the concept of public private studys. Religion became private matter of citizens. Gods rights no prolonged decided on political questions and social relations. Secular society was based on secular rules. The Enlightenment believed in reason and science, and through them sought emancipation from religion and superstition. Social change required that cultural traditions be weakened to allow for new ideas and attitudes favoring social progress10. Religion and tradition constrained social change and overruled the utopian vision of future. It does not mean that the Enlightenment was a truly secular era. Rejection of religion covered only public, political sphere. None of the great philosophers of the period Becon, Diderot, Locke postulated atheism11. The issue was to separate religion from science, theology from logical reasoning. Religion intruded cognition, so had to be abandoned in the sphere of knowledge.Marx also shared with the Enlightenment the concept of secular society, t hough he brought the idea of secularization further. For Marx every ideology and meta-narration of society, in every stage of its development, was a product of current economic relations, and so was religion. Religion internalized rules, regulations and prohibitions served justification of the conditions of production and hence, the justification of exploitation. In this thought religion was a mechanism of oppression. It was no longer a private issue, but a political one, that justified bourgeois order. As in the eighteen century religion obstructed change, but this time, though, it was not suppose to be withdraw from public life, but destroyed absolutely. That is why, according to Marx, emancipation not only required rejection of theological order of the world, but also complete rejection of religion. Once again this emancipation required revolution dramatic and sudden change of economic conditions that would change social relations, including execution of religion.The role of scienceThe Enlightenment was the era of development of sciences. A great expand of sciences such as mathematics, medicine, natural sciences changed the view of modern philosophers on the world and human kind. intelligence revealed mystery of existence and the order of nature. That is why science became one of the ways to obtain individual freedom. Eighteen century philosophers presumed that one day science will lead to discovery of logical, rational order of human and societal relations.For Marx science also had an important role in revealing the rules of organization of society. Marx knew that in order to change, it is necessary to understand the social forces institutions, cultural traditions, social groups12. In Marx theory science held the explanatory role by revealing the real nature of social order, gave information about social classes, modes of production and rules of historical development. accord to Marx, science should be based on rational assumptions and logical laws , it should reject common sense and superstitions.When discussing the role of science in Marx theory, his contribution to scientific methods is worth mention. The Enlightenment admired achievements of modern mathematics and physicists, especially those of Newton. Philosophers were dreaming of finding scientific method, similar to methods used in physics and mathematics, to investigate and describe social world. Modern thinkers presumed that since the complex world of nature can be characterized through clear rules and patterns of numbers, the same can be done with human environment.Marx sought different path of inquiry. His scientific method characterized as historicism13postulated investigation on every social phenomena in their historical context. Marx claimed that all individuals and their actions are embedded in broader setting, since none human being exists separated from his environment. Moreover he posed the question of a tec as a social actor, entangled in social reality bes ide investigated objects. Marx claimed that scientist shares common consciousness to the same degree as all other members of society. authoritative scientific method required from the researcher detachment from false, superstition knowledge embedded on the surface of social life14. Here again Marx expressed belief in reason and logic, similarly to his eighteen century ancestors.Economic perspectiveThough Marx theory shares materialistic perspective, he was not the one to innovate economic interpretation of social life. Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson and others eighteen century thinkers saw the leading role of economy in social life. Those early economists wrote about dehumanization of work and disintegration of society through modern specialization of production and technical development of the production process15. Industrial revolution of eighteen century brought to light new phenomena that were not overlooked by present-day thinkers. Negative effects of industrialization, demographi c explosion and urbanization were thoroughly discussed by that time.As we can see, the importance of material conditions for human individual and collective life was not the Marx invention, though he also observed that technology destroys social relations. According to him, innovations, machines and devices used in the process of production serve the dominant class for exploitation of workers16. Nevertheless, with his materialistic view on society, Marx went further with the idea, claiming that the reproduction of material life precedes the production of culture17. For Marx material conditions of existence were the basis for all other characteristics of life. In this concept, living conditions determined social structure, policies, rules and morality. Marx showed that certain social conditions shape certain forms of consciousness. That was a great contribution of Marx thought to social sciences. Since Marx, social scientists began research on the role of material conditions on human thoughts, believes and attitudes, giving a lead off to many disciplines of social sciences, as sociology of thought, sociology of knowledge or sociology of religion18. Moreover, since then, social scientists considered development process and ownership relations of societies as some of the most important criteria of social studies analysis.The concept of stateEighteen century philosophy was critical towards the old order or regime. The Enlightenment developed several state theories19, all connected with the concept of social contract. Hobbes, claimed that the states are made on the basis of common agreement in which citizens give their rights to absolute power. John Locke postulated conception of free-hearted state based on tolerance, private ownership and freedom of economic action. In this conception it was not the absolute ruler but society that plunk for the power. Kannt, on the other hand, proposed peaceful republican regime of federation of states. Finally Rousseau wrote a bout egalitarian regime of equal chances, conditions and rights of citizens. All the eighteen century concepts of potential were positive ones, assuming rationality of power and universality of interests.Marx concept of the state was not the optimistic one. In his works state power had class character20. Regime authority served class interest of dominant group of society capitalists, through organized violence towards the suppressed class. There was no possibility to gain freedom through or within the state. Unlike the eighteen century theories, Marx project of desirable future assumed abolishment of the bureaucratic, oppressive, class regime. Decomposition of the state should be accomplished through a proletariat revolution that would lead to class-free society of common owners.Individualism and collective actionIn earlier philosophy, the situation of human being in society was constant and determined, not by human himself, but by external forces the world order, gods will, som e kind of nicety and internal sense of social existence. Enlightenment and especially the French revolution, brought the idea of civil society and civil rights21. The Enlightenment claimed that all human beings share some common characteristics that are independent of external, historical or natural conditions. It was the kind of individualism, that claimed that human nature in general have some common qualities inherited from the state of nature. That is what makes society egalitarian differences between human status in society are merely secondary, in a sense that all (male) human beings are equal and share the same civic rights. Emancipation in this context was a political emancipation of citizens from feudal, traditional relations.Marx connected human position in social structure with material conditions and idea of work and ownership. For him the idea of society was not based on the idea of civil rights, but on the idea of economic relations between different social groups c lasses. It was dichotomous vision of society made of workers and capitalists the owners of means of production. Emancipation was possible not on the basis of civil rights, but on the basis of changing economic relations. This was a revolutionary perspective, leading to turnover of social order. Unlike the Enlightenment, Marx did not perceive emancipation and concept of freedom in individual actions. He clearly rejected individualism both in terms of individual social actions and as the method of inference about human conditions. Marx claimed that every individual is rooted in his collective history and society, and his consciousness, as well as beliefs, goals and needs are shaped through that heritage. That is why not only analysis of human conditions, but also the projected change of social relations, has to take into consideration collective baggage and collective effort.ConclusionsAs we can see, Marx benefited much from the Enlightenment philosophy, though we have to keep in m ind, that issues presented in this paper are merely examples of eighteen century tradition in Marx thought. Marx indeed was a child of the Enlightenment in a sense, that he took form that tradition in different ways, sometimes directly, sometimes developing further ideas and sometimes criticizing and negating the eighteen century thought. This heritage however seems somehow natural, since we cannot abandon of our history and are always influenced by prior discourses. What we have to remember about is, that eighteen century tradition does not exhaust Marx thought but merely enriches and embeds it in historical context.