Karl Marx's Theory of IdeasMarx's undeveloped ideas about how society presents a misleading appearance which distorts its members' understanding of it have been the subject of many conflicting interpretations. In this book John Torrance takes a fresh, un-Marxist approach to Marx's texts and shows that a more precise, coherent and cogent sociology of ideas can be extracted from them than is generally allowed. The implications of this for twentieth-century capitalism and for recent debates about Marx's conceptions of justice, morality and the history of social science are explored. The author argues that Marx's theory of ideas is sufficiently independent of other parts of his thought to provide a critique and explanation of those defects in his own understanding of capitalism which allowed Marxism itself to become, by his own definition, an ideology. |
Contents
Marxs theory of knowledge | 29 |
theory | 61 |
social being គឺ ភ ភ 96 | 64 |
Social consciousness | 144 |
Ideology | 191 |
Class struggle consciousness and ideology | 224 |
1 | 243 |
Justice | 281 |
29 | 293 |
2224 | 303 |
Morality | 307 |
61 | 341 |
The sociology of political economy | 362 |
Marxs science and Marxist ideology | 398 |
Bibliography of secondary sources | 428 |
Other editions - View all
Karl Marx's Theory of Ideas John Torrance,Faculty Lecturer in Politics and Fellow John Torrance,Torrance John No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract appear bourgeois bourgeois society bourgeoisie capital capitalist capitalist production circulation claim class consciousness class interest Cohen commodity commodity fetishism communism communist society conception consumption critical critique dependence division of labour dominant duction economic Elster Engels equality essence exchange paradigm exchange-values existence explained explanatory primacy exploitation false consciousness fetishism feudal forms of society function German Ideology Grundrisse Hence historical materialism human ideal ideas ideologists illusion illusory individual institutions intellectual intercourse inversion justice labour-power Malthus Marx Marx thought Marx's theory Marxist means of production mode of production moral ideology nature normative philosophy political economy practical practico-theoretical beliefs prescriptive primacy of production production units productive development productive forces proletariat rational reality reflected reification relations of production reproduction revolution revolutionary role ruling class scientific sense social consciousness social production social relations socialist sphere structure superstructure surface surplus labour surplus-value theoretical thesis workers
Popular passages
Page xix - In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war raging within existing society up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat.