History and Random Events
This is an excerpt from the paper...
3. Marx, it appears, would respond to the view that history is nothing more than a series of random events with something like contempt, if his writings on the subject are any guide. Marx appears to have an answer for every single little social problem, and even in the wake of discredited political and economic regimes aligning themselves with Marxist theory, Marx's answers offer adherents the opportunity to claim that they are valid for all history anywhere. Marx's analysis of the individual's relationship to his society and hence to the scheme of history, however, illustrates that whether one perceives history as a consequence of random actions or as a a consequence of conspiracy on the part of powerful actors, the fact is that events as a category of experience by and large overwhelm the options that individuals have to seize control of their own experience of the world.[T]here is also in the world at large an increasing inclination to stretch unduly the powers of society over the individual, both by the force of opinion and even by that of legislation: and as the tendency of all the changes taking place in the world is to strengthen society, and diminish the power of the individual, this encroachment is not one of the evils which tend spontaneously to disappear, but, on the contrary, to grow more and more formidable (Marx, "Contribution" 20). This description of human experience in capitalistic society is at the core of Marx's analysis of a society against which there
. . .
(or against) anomie, occurs in "industrial and commercial functions," and not solely in the lower classes. What this points to is the dehumanizing effects of a society defined by an industrial and commercial ethos. Thus whether history is nothing more than random events or not, the experience of unfolding history, from the individual's point of view, is that it is entirely out of his or her control, something that has a life of its own and that is entirely disconnected from the strongest hopes and needs of the individual.
Durkheim assigns the term anomic suicide to that which "results from man's activity's lacking regulation and his consequent suffering" (Durkheim 258). He connects this term to what he describes as egoistic suicide, which refers to the psychology of having no purpose and distinguishes it from altruistic suicide, wherein the suicide makes a sacrifice for something more important (country, honor, fellow man) than his life. Durkheim analyzes anomic suicide in terms of the relationship between the individual and the society, noting that the society influences the shaping of individuals, not the other way around. Durkheim specifically rejects the idea that society's continuity is a consequence of the work of individ
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Marx Durkheim, Suicide Durkheim, Marx Contribution, Marx German, , Labor Society, Marx Manifesto, Whereas Marx's, Marx Alienation, Russia Marx, private property, human experience, reader ed robert, york ww norton, norton company, ww norton, tucker york, york ww, company 1978, robert tucker, marx-engels reader ed, ed robert tucker, marx-engels reader, reader ed, robert tucker york,
Approximate Word count = 2767
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
