Karl Marx: Metatheory 20%

This assignment will test your ability to define and locate Marx’s metatheory, focusing on his
ontological and epistemological commitments. First, read Benton & Craib’s assigned chapter.
Then, read this excerpt from Marx’s Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political
Economy (originally published in 1859). This exercise will practice the following skills:

 Reading difficult texts: can we find a way in to complex texts? What sort of starting-point
can we find in a text that seems, at first, utterly incomprehensible? How do we deal with
arguments that aren’t in a conventional and systematic form?
 Explication: How can we locate the metatheoretical commitments of a theorist from a
passage of text? How can we recognize when a theorist is implicitly spelling out his/her
commitments? How can we make these explicit?
 Explanation: After locating these metatheoretical components, how can we explain them in a
concise, clear manner?

The key to making the criteria by which theorists draw conclusions about society and the social
world explicit is to work through the texts closely. Read the excerpt from Marx’s text below, then
answer the questions on page 2 of the assignment. Click on the grey fields to start typing your
answer. Save it. Then upload it to Moodle for assessment.

“I examine the system of bourgeois economy. … The general conclusion at which I arrived and
which, once reached, became the guiding principle of my studies can be summarised as follows.

5“In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are
independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the
development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production
constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and
political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The
10mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and
intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social
existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material
productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this
merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework
15of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these
relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the
economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense
superstructure.

20“In studying such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material
transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the
precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic – in short,
ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. Just as one
does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period
25of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained
from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of
production and the relations of production.”

Classical Sociological Theory 1

Dr. Ariane Hanemaayer
 1. Ontology
a) Define ontology (quote Benton and Craib text)

- According to Benton and Craib Ontology is the answer someone would give to the question
“What kinds of things are there in the world”. Ontology is one of many ways to answer that
question, as there are several traditions. Another way to look at it is to think about what can be
known about the lived reality or what is the nature of it.

b) Copy and paste the sentence or two where Marx implicitly states his ontological commitments

- “The life-process of society, which is based on the process of material production, does
not strip off its mystical veil until it is treated as production by freely associated men, and
30 is consciously regulated by them in accordance with a settled plan. This, however,
demands for society a certain material ground-work or set of conditions of existence
which in their turn are the spontaneous product of a long and painful process of
development”.

- “The materialist doctrine concerning the changing of circumstances and upbringing

35 forgets that circumstances are changed by men and that it is essential to educate the
educator himself. This doctrine must, therefore, divide society into two parts, one of
which is superior to society”.

c) Explain in 2-3 sentences how you know that his ontology can be found in that quotation
     

2. Epistemology
a) Define epistemology (quote Benton and Craib text)

- Epistemology is understanding how we know what we know. This theory branches off
into rationalism and empiricism. A quote by Benton and Craib is as followed “At birth,
they held, the human mind is a blank sheet, as it were, and our knowledge is acquired
subsequently, through learning to recognize recurrent patterns in our experience, and
attaching general ideas to them.”

b) Copy and paste the sentence or two where Marx implicitly states his epistemological
commitments:

- “Class are groups of people who have a common position in relation to production, such
as laborers or owners of capital. Classes are formed due to the social division of labor.
40 They emerge and disappear as the structure of production changes.”

c) Explain in 2-3 sentences how you know that his epistemology can be found in that quotation

Marx (II) 2
Dr. Ariane Hanemaayer
- It can be found in this quotation because Marx views society as social classes the working class
and the capitalist class. This quotation discusses how workers are exploited by employers and
ideologies are used by employers to justify social inequality.  

Marx (II) 3
Dr. Ariane Hanemaayer