Class notes
Lecture notes Classical Social Theory (HS2001)
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These are my summarized lecture notes for this module, focused on 3 main Sociology theorists - Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim.
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HS2001: CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY (Notes)SOCIOLOGIST: KARL MARX
Week 1-2: What is society to Marx?
Marx’s conception of humanity
Marx’s conception of history
Marx’s conception of knowledge/understanding
The Spectre of Communism
Due to the history of communism, Marx has come to be associated with many negative things
Capitalism has largely thrived over communism
Singapore: We learnt that communism is a very frightening thing
Anchoring story in the narrative of our nation is overcoming communist threat → lack of
understanding of Marxist theory
The term ‘Communist’ still has a negative connotation in Singapore - communism is seen as
an evil concept, threatening the idea of nationalism
Marx’s purpose: Revolution
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point, however is to change it.” -
Theses on Feuerbach, The Marx Engels Reader, pp 145
Marx does not have an elaborate theory on communism → just a vague description of what
communism is
Instead, most of his work mainly explored the limitations of capitalism and how to resolve
such problems
○ How to change things through revolution?
○ What are the dynamics within capitalism that will lead to communism?
What is society?
1. Humanity: what are human beings?
2. History: How do changes in society come about?
3. Ideas: where do they come from? What role do they play in driving historical changes?
Marx and Hegel
Critique of Hegel; the dialectic
1
, Marx was arguing against Hegel and Young Hegelians
He was trained in the Hegelian tradition
Ideas/theories about contradictions drive history
For Marx, contradictions are material and must be resolved in the real material world
○ The most productive way to study the world is to analyse the contradictions
Hegel believed that historical change has been driven by contradictory understandings,
attempt to resolve contradictions, and new contradictions
Marx believed that contradictions exist in real life, and have real material basis → can only
be resolved at a life and death struggle in a real material world
Contradictions and the attempts to resolve contradictions are the way to drive history
forward → has real material basis
He did not believe that contradictions can be worked out theoretically/philosophically
Marx is arguing with Hegel and his students (Young Hegelians) → drawing from this
theory but also challenging these concepts
E.g. of contradiction:
Relationship between workers (proletariat) and capitalists (bourgeoisie)
○ THINKING about this relationship NOT going in resolve contradictions
○ Material conditions have to change
Within a capitalist system, the capitalists’ interest is to exploit workers, but the workers’
interest is not to be exploited
Marx saw exploitation as the key characteristic of the capitalist system, not a negative
externality or negative consequence
Exploitation defines capitalism, and it would grow worse over time
Capitalists would drive more and more people into the working class, exploit business
As capitalism expands, the level of exploitation would continually become intense
The tension between the 2 classes cannot be resolved through philosophy – just thinking
about their relationship is not going to change the terms of that relationship and not going
to resolve the contradictions that exist
What would happen instead: as exploitation increases, so would the resistance of the
workers
This tension will lead to real confrontation in contrast to philosophy.
And it is this confrontation between the workers and the capitalist will lead to a solution.
Thinking about this relationship not going to resolve contradictions
Capitalism has within it the seeds of its own resistance – it would result in real
confrontation (real material thing)
It is the real confrontation that would lead the contradictions ceasing to exist
Real as in realm of ideas
2
, Material conditions have to change
Marx’s Conception of Humanity
Species being: pp76 “economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844’’
There are some fundamental qualities that makes us different from other animals
The term ‘Human Nature’ suggests that human characteristics are fixed, but Marx has an idea
that people can change
He made certain assumptions about the nature of humans to form the basis of his theory
“Man makes his life activity the object of his will and his consciousness...” → ‘Consciousness’
regarding our activities
“Man produces even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom
therefrom”
○ Animals, on the other hand, produce only what they need to survive
○ Humans go beyond what they need to produce to live
○ Once humans do that, they also transform their needs
○ Production is seen as a meaningful, creative activity
People in contrast to other animals, have consciousness regarding their activities and produces
beyond their basal needs and transform their needs
Humans are capable of changing the ways they relate to one another, their ideas about things
etc.
Interaction – human beings are social creatures
It is meaningless to think of human beings in isolation
Production is assumed to be seen as a meaningful and creative activity → they are not done in
isolation → it is essentially social → requires the cooperation of other beings
Human beings make things in cooperation with other human beings through socialisation
They (in the past) believed that humans are more social than animals → Marx believed that
humans are fundamentally social in nature
History of humanity should be studied in relation to industry and exchange → people do not
produce alone but in communities
Alienation - as suppressing humanity (Labour and Production)
“The division of labour offers us the example of how as long as activity is not voluntarily, but
naturally, divided, man’s own deed becomes an alien power opposed to him, which enslaves
him instead of being controlled by him…”
○ Communism: there is a voluntary division of labour - people will really be able to do
what they want to do
3
, For Marx, the division of labour under capitalism does not allow humans to be fully human →
this is why capitalism is problematic
The workers do not control the flow of labour, they do not control what they produce
Division of labour → activity is not voluntary, but naturally divided, man’s own deed becomes
an alien power opposed to him
People are compelled to specialise in certain things
Production is reduced to a meaningless activity and became a means to an end, it does not
transform our ideas to the world and it no longer connects us to other people (social)
Under capitalism, people are alienated from their own labour, their own product, their
fellow workers (no longer in cooperation with others but in competition), and their own
human potential.
Capitalism contradicts his belief of social and consciousness
Capitalism suppresses humanity in profound ways → “Dehumanises” humans
Marx’s Conception of History
Materialist conception of history
Marx thinks that each historical era has a dominant mode of production
Mode of production: How are things produced and exchanged?
2 hearts of production: Forces of production and Relations of production
○ Forces of production: Things that are used to make things for humans and satisfy their
needs → e.g. tools, machinery, human labour, factories etc.
○ Relations of production: Relationships people have with one another to satisfy human
needs
■ E.g. Capitalist class owns product, working class work for salary from
capitalists
■ Under the capitalist system, there is a high division of labour - each worker has
a specific task
■ Wage labour: workers work for wages - workers do not own what they make;
capitalists own them (they own land, tools etc.)
Marx believed that forces and relations will coincide in the process of production → relations
are affected by forces and vice versa (feudal to capitalist system) so as to correspond with one
another
The sum total of these 2 hearts of production constitutes the economic structure of society
Both the hearts of production correspond with one another and shape each other (constantly
moving together)
They are related but they are not in causal relationship → they are in a dialectical relationship
At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come in
conflict with the existing relations of production
4
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