Marxism and Sociology

Abstract

When Marx died in 1883 Marxism as a distinctive body of knowledge, theory of society and scientific methodology had exercised little influence in the field of the social sciences. Discussion of Marxism was largely confined to the workers’ movement and it was not until the 1890s that a wider debate was initiated involving scholars from different areas of the social sciences — economics, history and sociology. The main academic critics of Marxism — Weber, Durkheim, Pareto, Mosca, Croce, Stammler, Sorel — did not set out simply to refute historical materialism but were mainly concerned with the problems which Marx had identified within the social sciences and modern society. This growing interest in Marxism was partly the result of its increasing popularisation in the socialist movement, as well as the importance of socialism itself as an organised political trend based on the principles of class struggle, class consciousness and class solidarity.