Buch | Kapitel
Marxism
a positive science of capitalist development
pp. 59-94
Abstrakt
Comte's theory of historical change had emphasised the concept of determinate laws, that history necessarily moved through a succession of stages culminating in the scientific epoch of positivism. For Comte, as with Montesquieu, Smith and Ferguson social change was not a random process dependent on purely subjective and accidental elements, but the result of an underlying structure of forces — material and moral — that generated both direction and meaning. As was argued in the previous chapter, many of Comte's fundamental ideas were derived from Saint-Simon, but in Comte's reworking of Saint-Simon's theories the concepts of industrialism, production, class formation and class conflict were stripped of their contradictory and negative aspects and integrated into an organismic, consensual model of society. But Saint-Simon's writings contain both positivistic and socialist elements. The development of socialism as both an intellectual current and socio-political movement owed much to the influence of Saint-Simon's followers. The Saint-Simonian school, in particular the writings of Enfantin and Bazard, argued that production must be socially organized.
Publication details
Published in:
Swingewood Alan (1991) A short history of sociological thought. Dordrecht, Springer.
Seiten: 59-94
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-21642-0_3
Referenz:
Swingewood Alan (1991) Marxism: a positive science of capitalist development, In: A short history of sociological thought, Dordrecht, Springer, 59–94.


