MAJOR CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGIST

Major Classical Sociologist

Major Classical Sociologist

Introduction

Karl Marx is one of the spectacular and influential social scientists of the 19th century, an undeniable founder of modern communal science. Some detractors, although, believe that Marx was not an original thinker and that his assertion to acknowledgement lies in the detail of his amazing synthesis of German beliefs, French Sociology and English Economics of his time. He assembled the stray and isolated thoughts in these fields and assembled a logical thoughtful manor for academic enlightenment and practical submission, very much according to his own design. Hegel's dialectical process or principle of development through thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis supplied the philosophical background for his idea of chronicled development through `contradiction and conflict'.

Karl Marx on Capitalismb

In the Economics side, Marx adopted in its entirety the Ricardian theory that labor was the source of value and developing it drew conclusions which Ricardo might have disdained. Thus, in short, Marx's social theory consists of three parts, with a fourth one thrown in later, and very ingeniously interwoven to present a coherent picture of a social organization, at once dynamic and in a state of flux. First is a philosophy of history anchored in the theory of Dialectical Materialism, which is manifested in a recurring class war in which the negation of the negation produces ever new negations. Secondly, there is the economic analysis which gives an exposition of a theory of value in an attempt to discover the secrets and the process of capitalist exploitation. Thirdly, there is a view of the state, about its present structure and nature, and techniques of changing it through revolution..

Capitalist mode of production

Nowhere in Marx's writings can we find a complete definition of the capitalist mode of production, although it can be said that, in a profound sense, in its entirety Das Kapital is itself his `definition' of the concept. However, from this and his other writings we can glean the meaning of a `mode of production' as the following: that it is a specific combination of productive forces which include human labor-power, machinery and tools and technologies, materials, buildings and improved land; and social relations of production which include the property, power and control relations governing society's productive assets, often codified in law, cooperative work relations and forms of association, and the relations between people and the objects of their work, and the relations between social classes.

Productive forces

Productive forces thus include tools, equipment, technologies etc. and also human labor-power; all of which in the current language of the economist generally constitute what are called `inputs' for producing output. Output is produced with the intention of sale in a market, for only through sale of output, can the owner of capital realize part of the surplus-product of human labor, and claim profits. So also, the inputs of production are supplied through the market, as commodities. However, machinery and techniques should not be considered in `the abstract'. A machine requires workers to build, operate and maintain it and only in this ...