Deutsche Gesellschaft
für phänomenologische Forschung

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187316

Marxism

a positive science of capitalist development

Alan Swingewood

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.