Why read the classics?

1. Why read the classics?

2. Why read the classics? “Not knowing that a certain theory has been developed long ago, or that a certain problem has been carefully studied by many predecessors, a sociologist may easily devote his time and energy to the discovery of a new sociological America after it was discovered long ago. Instead of a comfortable crossing of the scientific Atlantic in the short period of time necessary for the study of what has been done before, such a sociologist has to undergo all the hardships of Columbus to find, only after his time and energy are wasted, that his discovery has been made a long time ago, and that his hardships have been useless. Such a finding is a tragedy for a scholar, and a waste of valuable ability for society and sociology.”

3. Marx • Background • Schooling • Family and Friendships • Political Orientation/Work/Activism • Economic Position • Influence

4. Grand Theories • Grand theory – “vast, highly ambitious effort to tell the story of a great stretch of human history” (Ritzer 2003:9) • Large-scale • Marx: capitalism • Durkheim: mechanicalorganic solidarity • Weber: rationalization of society • Stands in contrast to theories of everyday life, which are small-scale

5. Key Ideas 1) Dialectical Historical Materialism • Historical: examines changes over time • Materialism: ideas are less important than economic structures • People gain power in the economic realm • They translate this power into other forms of power • Their economic position determines their consciousness

6. Key Ideas (cont.) 1) Dialectical Historical Materialism (cont.) • “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life.”

7. Key Ideas (cont.) 1) Dialectical Historical Materialism (cont.) • Dialectical: way of thinking that stresses processes, relations, dynamics, conflicts and contradictions • Reciprocal Relations • Social Values are embedded in Social Facts • Past, Present and Future • Theory and praxis • Not deterministic

8. Key Ideas (cont.) 1) Dialectical Historical Materialism (cont.) • Dialectical (cont.) • Relationship between Actors and Social Structures • “Circumstances make men just as much as men make circumstances.” • “Men make their own history, but they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.”

9. Key Ideas (cont.) 1) Dialectical Historical Materialism (cont.) • Dialectical (cont.) • Conflict and Contradiction • e.g., bourgeoisie and proletariat • The bourgeoisie produces the proletariat, and in producing and expanding that class, they are producing their own gravediggers.

10. Key Ideas (cont.) 1) Dialectical Historical Materialism (cont.) • Dialectic = • A given condition (thesis) • Creates its own opposition (antithesis) • Struggle leads to a new state (synthesis) • New state creates its own opposition

11. Key Ideas (cont.) 2) Alienation • Workers are alienated from: • Productive activity • Product • Fellow workers • Human potential

12. Key Ideas (cont.) 3) Capitalism • Private property • Division of labor • Social classes • Capital

13. Key Ideas (cont.) 3) Capitalism (cont.) • Commodities • Use-value • Exchange-value • Circulation of commodities • C-C • C-M-C • M-C-M

14. Communist Manifesto • Characterization of society • Key classes in capitalism • Key features of capitalism • Mode of production consists of: • Productive forces • Labor power • Means of production • Raw materials of production • Social relations of production • Classes • Class exploitation (surplus value) • Class antagonism • Contradiction of capitalism (overproduction)

15. Communist Manifesto (cont.) • Revolution • Worker-worker struggles • Factory struggles • Struggles within localities • Others join proletariat • Widespread association and unionization of proletariat • Class • Political party

16. Communist Manifesto (cont.) • Revolution (cont.) • False consciousness • Class consciousness • Communists • Relationship with proletarians • Objectives • Means to achieve their aims • Changes in other aspects of society