Marxian & Neo-Marxian Theory

Marx often sounded like an economic determinist; that is, he seemed to consider the economic system of paramount importance and to argue that it determined all other sectors of society--politics, religion, idea systems, and so forth. Although Marx did see the economic sector as preeminent, at least in capitalist society, as a dialectician he could not have taken a deterministic position, because the dialectic is characterized by the notion that there is continual feedback and mutual interaction among the various sectors of society.

While it is clear that individual actions, in Marx's view, were not the primary factor in shaping society, he did give the individual an important role, but essentially during the period leading to revolution. Historical materialism tries to explain the development of capitalism and imperialism in the world, with Marx arguing that the development of the socioeconomic system of capitalism has been a material development, just as the development of human beings has been a material evolution. People have not made choices which brought about capitalism: Marx argued that the analysis of society must start from

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ore valuable than the people themselves) is applied . . . to all society--the state, the law, and the economic sector. The same dynamic applies in all sectors of capitalist society: people come to believe that social structures have a life of their own, and as a result they do come to have an objective character. Lukacs' neo-Marxist view of class consciousness gives more power to individuals than Marxist theory, or least individuals within the proletariat, which is capable of a true class consciousness he believes is denied to the bourgeoisie, which "at best . . . understands the development of capitalism as something external, subject to objective laws, which it can experience only passively." The proletariat, on the other hand, has the capacity to develop true class consciousness, and as it does, the bourgeoisie is thrown on the defensive. Lukacs refused to see the proletariat as simply driven by external forces but viewed it instead as an active creator of its own fate. . . . "The class struggle must be raised from the level of economic necessity to the level of conscious aim and effective class consciousness" [writes Lukacs]. When the struggle reaches this point, the proletariat is capable of the action that can overthro
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2016
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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