Adam Smith
Immanuel Kant
Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Early Social Thought &
Enlightenment
~and~
Marx & Engels I: Alienation and
Historical Materialism
Instructor: Sarah Whetstone
January 25, 2012
Social Theory 2012 Blog
Blog URL:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/whet0013/theory2012/
Password: anomie
Guidelines - graded reflection essays:
• 5 entries per semester – post a new entry for credit,
not a comment. Put it in the right category.
• You choose the Readings.
• 500-1000 words.
• respond to at least one of the posted reading
questions in full.
• post your essay BEFORE CLASS to get credit.
Origins of Social Thought:
Overview of Major Periods
 Dark Ages (450-1000 CE) – Religious dogma
dominated
 Renaissance, Scientific Revolutions, Reformation (1400
– 1600)
 The Enlightenment, “Age of Reason” (1700s)
 Rousseau-- “the people rule”
 Kant-- “dare to question”
 Birth of Modernity, “Modern Era” (1800)
 Rapid large-scale social transformations
 Founding figures in sociology begin writing
 Post-modern era?
Major Changes: 1450 - 1600
• Renaissance
–
–
–
–
Ideals of humanism
Self-rule/rule of law
City-states as republics
Revolutions in art, politics, philosophy, and science
• Growth of Science
– Logic, experimentation, development of systematic theories,
inductive vs. deductive reasoning
– Galileo (1564-1642) based conclusions on evidence, not faith
– Leonardo da Vinci—scientific design of machinery
– Newton’s universal laws of motion, gravity
• Reformation
– 1517-Martin Luther, Protestants – human interpretation of
religious texts
Galileo’s trial: “recant or
be burned at the stake!”
Science Vs. Religion
European Dark Ages → Enlightenment →
Modernity: Four Main Changes Driving
Social Thought
1)
Individualism and critical thinking
•
Belief that scientific analysis → TRUTH
•
Distinction of society from state and church
•
Growth of individual choice and individual liberty
2)
Modern government systems
•
Rise of the sovereign nation-state
•
Rousseau’s “social contract” – Individuals are born free citizens,
Rule of the people > rule of royal or religious authority
•
Solidification of civil society
•
Democratic revolutions – England (1640-60), America (1776), France
(1789)
3)
Large-scale markets, capitalism & industry
•
Move from agrarian serf-based societies (feudalism) to industrial,
urban societies
•
Production transformed by division of labor, factories, and
technology
4)
European expansion and colonialism
•
Expansion of trade, forced extraction of resources and labor
•
Global colonization, enslavement, exploitation, and enforcement of
cultural standards by the Western world
•
Exchange of ideas, exposure to different cultures and practices
The Perfect Storm: The
Birth of Social Theory
Growth of natural sciences
Use of scientific reasoning
Primacy of
individual in
choice,
thinking
Major changes
in the
economic
modes of
production
Critique of
old systems
of authority
Exposure to
other cultures
and ideas via
colonialism
How can we
understand the way
the social world
operates?
Development of
sovereign nationstates
POP QUIZ: Origins of Social
Thought
Which of the following is not one of
the four major changes important
in the development of sociological
theory?
a) Development of civil society
b) Collapse of organized religion
c) Expansion of market society
d) Rise of ethos of individualism
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
•
Born and raised in a small German town–
Very structured upbrining: Stared at a church
steeple
•
Major contribution – Critique of Pure Reason
– considered one of greatest works in history
of philosophy – united reason and
experience to advance use of human logic
•
Influenced an entire school of philosophers,
including Hegel
•
Fundamental question:
How can we know anything for sure? We need
to critically examine old beliefs.
Kant: “What is Enlightenment?”
• “Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused
immaturity” (39).
• Kant says we have a fear of thinking for ourselves, and
we need to embrace intellectual autonomy!
• Sapere Aude! -- Kant believed in having the courage to
use your own intellect to think and make decisions–
Individual thought should be free from dominant
influence of religious and state authorities.
• “The public use of a man’s reason must be free at all
times, and this alone can bring enlightenment among
men… (40).”
“Sapere Aude!” : Dare to Know!
Public Reason v Private Reason:
What is the Distinction??
…But According to
Kant, through the
USE of reason, we
are intellectually
liberated…. And
through the use of
Public reason to
challenge existing
systems, humanity
can make great
progress.
POP QUIZ: Kant on Reason
For Kant, how is reason best used?
a) In public debate, to critique existing
standards
b) In private spaces, to complete ordered
tasks.
c) To justify the status quo
d) When exercised by religious authority
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
• Born in Scotland, highly educated, witnessed
rapidly changing economic forms:
Industrialization, urbanization, new technology
• Smith asked: What makes a nation prosperous,
and its people affluent?
• He answered: the free market!
• Smith’s Theory: free market  national prosperity,
earned him title of “Father of modern economics”
Smith’s Division of Labor
“Propensity to
truck, barter, and
exchange” 
Exchange of goods
in markets  Need
for efficiency 
Segmentation in
production by
cooperating
specialists 
Division of labor
Smith’s classic example of
the pin-making factory =
Birth of modern
industrial economics
POP QUIZ: Division of Labor
According to Smith, what resulted
from the division of labor?
a) Inefficient economic organization
b) Increased social progress, prosperity,
and productivity
c) The separation of humans from Nature
d) Social transgression back to the Dark
Ages
Smith: “Division of Labor is
Awesome!”
 “increases the productive powers of labour”
 brings about “increase of dexterity… saving
of time….[and] invention of [helpful] machines”
 “The division of labor, by reducing every man’s business
to some one simple operation, and by making this
operation the sole employment of his life, necessarily
increases very much the dexterity of the workman” (46).
 Increases productivity and prosperity for all of society
POP QUIZ: INVISIBLE HAND
What did Adam Smith mean when he argued that
market society is guided by an invisible
hand?
a) Interaction in markets is driven by the moral
choices of participants.
b) The market works according to complex economic
policies set forth by government.
c) Market society is inherently self-regulating,
based on the behavior of self-interested
actors.
d) Social processes in market capitalism obscure
the true nature of human beings.
Smith’s “Invisible Hand”
 “It is not from the benevolence of the
butcher, the brewer or the baker that we
expect our dinner, but from their regard to
their own self-interest” (50).
 Smith’s theory relies on the notion that
people are motivated by self-interest
alone.
 "By [seeking profit] ….he intends only his
own gain...led by an invisible hand to
promote an end which was no part of his
intention” (53).
 Free market competition means that
demand will drive the need to supply
better, cheaper, more accessible goods
and services. This fuels invention,
problem-solving, and progress– for the
good of all.
~smith’s legacy~
• View of human nature = self-interested
actors
• View of market = functions harmoniously,
as long as everyone is free to pursue
their own interests
• Smith says, paradoxically, selfishness
ends up serving the whole system.
• Basis of modern economic theory
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
•
Born in Trier, Germany (Prussia) to well off family,
highly educated
•
Transferred to University of Berlin
•
Studied philosophy, involved with Young Hegelians
•
1842 – moved to Paris – faced persecution for his
writing – times of political and economic strife,
worldwide revolutions
•
Met lifelong collaborator, Engels
•
Continued to publish, prominent member of
International Socialist movements: A scholar-activist
•
Died in poverty in London, 1883
Influences on Marx
Darwin’s Enlightenment
Evolution Humanism
(Kant &
Rousseau
etc.)
Hegel’s
Dialectic
English
Economists
(Smith, etc.)
Science and
Empiricism
Misery of
Factory
Workers
Socialist
Movements
Karl Marx’s Brain!
Three Periods of Marxist Thought
Philosophical
Materialist perspective of social
reality; Alienation as fundamental
human experience in capitalist
systems
The German Ideology (1844)
Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts
(1844)
Political
Class struggle as driver of social
change; Marxist vision for
socialist utopia
Manifesto of the Communist Party
(1848)
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis
Bonaparte (1852)
Economic
How capitalism works to exploits
workers; Competition, labor
theory of value, commodification,
fetishism, etc.
“Wage Labor and Capital”
“Classes”
Capital (1867)
Marx & Engels: “The German Ideology”
Key Concepts:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Historical Materialism - or - The Materialist
Perspective
Turning Hegel on his head
Modes of Production
Economic Base and Superstructure
Economic Production and Production of
Knowledge (Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas)
Dialectic -or- Dialectical Materialism
Role of Sociological Knowledge
Who the **** is Hegel?
• Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
• German philosopher
• Studied changes brought on by French
Revolution and Enlightenment
• Hegel theorized that change happens through
a Dialectic:
– Old situation (thesis) has internal tensions.
– A challenge emerges (anti-thesis)
– Produces a new integration of both (synthesis).
• Marx was a fan– but also a critic– the best
student!
Historical Materialism… Marx
turns Hegel on his head!
politics, social
relationships, family,
religion, ideas, culture,
love
MATERIAL REALITY
-Hegel: The development of ideas and
knowledge drive historical change
(economic, social, political)
-Marx: Changes in the economic bases of
society drive all other changes (social,
political, production of knowledge)
BASE
SUPERSTRUCTURE
The Revolutionary Marxist Turn…
Diagrams of Hegel and Marx, by permission of Professor John L. Heineman, Boston College
Marx does owe a few things to
Hegel, though… The Dialectic
Hegel’s Abstract Theory of the
Dialectic:
Change occurs through contradiction,
which leads to resolution, which leads
to new sets of contradiction.
Marx’s Dialectical Materialism:
-Empirical – systematic observations
-History moves forward with changes in
modes of production
-Materialist theory of social change
Marxist theory of historical materialism
Historical Materialism…
“In the social production in which men carry on, they enter
into definite relations that are indispensable and
independent of their will. These relations of production
correspond to a definite stage of development of the
material powers of production. The totality of these
relations of production constitutes the economic
structure of reality--the real foundation, on which legal
and political superstructures arise and to which definite
forms of social consciousness correspond. The mode of
production of material life determines the general
character of the social, political and spiritual processes
of life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines
their being, but, on the contrary, their social being
determines their consciousness” (Marx, Selected
Writings, 51).
Reading Questions:
Ruling classes and ruling ideas
Discuss in Groups
1. Take the concept of “historical materialism” further by
interpreting this quote from the reading. Give an
example to illustrate this basic idea.
"The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e.
the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same
time its ruling intellectual force" (83).
2. Think about Kant's statement on humanity's intellectual
progress in the Enlightenment. How could you critique
Kant using Marx? (Don’t say you “Kant” – you really
can!)
Marx & Engels: “Economic and
Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”
Key Concepts:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Proletariat v. Bourgeoisie
Critique of Political Economy
Objectification of Worker
Alienation
Species-being
Emancipation of Worker
Scholar-Activist
Capitalism creates a class-based society…
Marxist Critique of Political Economy:
Capitalism Alienates Worker
• “We proceed from actual economic fact….”
• “The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he
produces… The worker becomes an even cheaper
commodity the more commodities he creates. The
devaluation of the world of men is in direct proportion to the
increasing value of the world of things. Labour produces not
only commodities: it produces itself and the worker as a
commodity….”
• This fact expresses merely that the object which labour
produces– labour’s product– confronts it as something alien,
as a power independent of the producer…” (87).
• “The worker is related to the product of his labour as to
an alien object” (87).
Alienation in Cinema:
Modern Times
POP QUIZ: Alienation!
According to Marx & Engels, how does
capitalism alienate workers from their
species-being?
a) It allows workers to fulfill their creative
human potential.
b) It creates a culture of mutual exploitation.
c) It encourages humans to act out biological
drives to compete for survival.
d) It’s the first economic system to create class
struggles.
Reading Questions:
Marx v. Smith
How does Adam Smith's theory of the
"invisible hand" of the market contradict the
Marxist perspective? Main tensions?
~THE END~
Thanks to Teresa Gowan, Jeff Broadbent, Arturo Baiocchi, and Wes Longhofer for providing some presentation materials.