Karl Marx Continuation Of The Enlightenment Sociology Essay

Karl Marx Continuation Of The adept Sociology EssayKarl Marx is regarded as one of the tell apartics of sociology. His kindly thought, considered one of the most important societal theories, was a manistic possible action, voiceless on the condition of federation and a place of undivided in cordial structure. Marx is known as one of the abundantest ideologists of the nineteen degree centigrade. His policy-making opening was revolutionary. As a sociologist though, he is regarded to be a huge heir of information1, using and developing key imaginations of the eighteen light speed thinkers. This paper is aimed to question Karl Marx conjecture in comparison to the friendship philosophy. I will try to answer a question to what extend Marx flirt genic from the insight thinkers? In station to that I will discuss the key fancys of the nirvana that were further developed in Marxs works. In the following(a) part of the paper I will comp atomic number 18 the roots o f the eighteen degree centigrade thinkers with Marx theory, in regard to nonions of progress, loving structure, pietism, science, actualism, verbalise and individuality. neighborly increase, progress and amicable pitchThe theory of social victimization and progress was the key innovation 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 order and break down to expansion of in the raw heads doubting customs duty. The Enlightenment recognized that homosexual fib budges and that societies experience material and mental, moral or philosophical progress. It became clear, that modernity is just an different pointedness of study, that does not terzetto the end of history, just might be as well a beginning of some better, unsanded purchase order. eighteen carbon thinkers considered former as the track(a) crowd of change, believing, that tender-hearted knowledge and cognizance may develop linearly. Since the Enlightenment was an age of science and reason, philosophers tend to clear up and order possessed knowledge. That lead to a few theories of historic 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 head of progress. In his works he wrote close to in series(p) stages of development of societies primitive company, feudalism, capitalism (bourgeois formation), socialism and communism. He aban through with(p)d the plan of reason as the leading force of progress, though. For Marx the key force of development was ownership and mode of turnout emerging from it. HeEach of the stages presented different social relations, policies, politics and consciousness wholly of which resulting from economic relation s. The mode of toil representing each of historical formation of society was regarded as a base, and resulted in different superstructures culture, trust 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 tout ensemble societies is inevitable and must lead through and through and through the equivalent phases.The Enlightenments attachment to the notion of progressive development of societies lead to the compositions of succeeding(a) 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 exposit by Condorcet, for whom future society would prevail tyranny by ever-changing tradition and superstition into reason4. Delany wrote of the Enlightenment as characterized by a certain utopianism, which was a reflection of the teaching in the promises of modernity to catch or so freedom. unalike earlier social thought, it displayed a great belief in the power of human action to model the future5. The same was true for Marx, who saw communism as the perfect and most of only just, social system. For Marx the end stage of human history communism delineated the most desired and final phase of human development. As Sideman wrote Marx never gave up his Enlightenment faith in the coming of a bracing era6.But contrary to the Enlightenment philosophers, for Marx, the utopia was not to be obtained through evolution and development of reason, still through revolution of working class. The idea of revolution was not present in eighteen century beforehand the experience of French revolution. Though it is sad, that the Enlightenment prep ard the ground for the tumult in France, works of eighteen century thinkers did not appeal to force or violent change. Marx shared the romantic vision of revolution with collectivised thinkers and activists supporting French strife. Moreover, unlike his eighteen century ancestors, Marx sought freedom in proletariat the working class of modernity. The Enlightenment was an age of intellectuals, bad 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 equality had spread. Eighteen century philosophers assay to find and describe origins of social order as well as discover best social conditions to maintain and expand individual freedom. in particular the latter freedom, understood as unconstrained development and expansion of reason was an important issue in the theory of state and governance. The Enligh tenment precious the idea of liberated individual in the society free from state, perform and other joint 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 gained 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, absolute 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 utilise a concept of class as sets of people or part of society that differ by the effective control over the mean 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 2 classes owners (capitalists) and workers. Since individuals within one class shared alike economic positions they to a fault shared the same amours. Individuals from different classes, on the other hand, remained in durable 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 expressed it Since the inequality amongst the owning class and the do work class is not simply an economic one, narrowly defined, scarce involves a social relationship of power and control, the difference of interest betwixt 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 loured peaceful and optimistic assumptions of the Enlightenment.Ideologies and religionThe end of the Middle Ages terminate the era of gods laws and theo licit explanation of social order. The Enlightenment apart(p) religion from politics. Eighteen century brought to invigoration the concept of public private spheres. godliness became private matter of citizens. Gods rights no longer decided on governmental questions and social relations. Secular society was establish on secular rules. The Enlightenment believed in reason and science, and through them sought liberty from religion and superstition. Social change required that cultural traditions be weakened to allow for rude(a) 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 genuinely 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 ha d to be abandoned in the sphere of knowledge.Marx to a fault shared with the Enlightenment the concept of secular society, though 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 developing. In this sense religion was a mechanism of oppression. It was no longer a private issue, but a political one, that reassert bourgeois order. As in the eighteen century religion hinder 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 in addition complete rejection of religion. Once again this emancipation required revolution dram atic 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 suck up of modern philosophers on the world and human kind. Science revealed mystery of earth and the order of constitution. 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 conventions12. 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. tally to Marx, science should be based on rational assumptions and logical laws, it should reject crude sense and superstitions.When discussing the role of science in Marx theory, his contribution to scientific regularitys is worth mention. The Enlightenment admired achievements of modern mathematics and physicists, especially those of Newton. Philosophers were woolgather of finding scientific method, similar to methods use in physics and mathematics, to check into 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 h uman being exists separated from his environment. Moreover he posed the question of a researcher as a social actor, entangled in social reality beside investigated objects. Marx claimed that scientist shares honey oil consciousness to the same degree as all other members of society. line up 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 introduce economic interpretation of social life. fling 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, demographic explosion and urbanization were thoroughly discussed by that time.As we can see, the magnificence 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, great(p) a start 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 attached 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 inclination of liberal state based on tolerance, private ownership and freedom of economic action. In this conception it was not the absolute ruler but s ociety that hold the power. Kannt, on the other hand, proposed peaceful republican regime of federation of states. Finally Rousseau wrote about egalitarian regime of equal chances, conditions and rights of citizens. All the eighteen century concepts of sureness 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 abolition 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 status of human being in society was constant and determined, not by human himself, but by external forces the world order, gods will, some kind of justice 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. independence 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 th e idea of society was not based on the idea of civil rights, but on the idea of economic relations between different social groups classes. It was dichotomous vision of society made of workers and capitalists the owners of mode 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 perceived 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 friendship collective baggage and collective effort.ConclusionsAs we can see, Marx benefited much from the Enlightenment philosophy, though we have to keep in mind, 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 previous 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.