What is Karl Marx's Major Contribution to Sociology? Was it his book Das Capital?

Answer 1

Das Kapital was one of the lengthiest explications of his economic theories, but I would never reduce his contribution to sociology to that book alone.

I think it is important to distinguish the political Marx ("The Communist Manifesto", etc), the journalistic Marx ("The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon", etc), and the
academic/philosophical Marx ("Das Kapital", "The German Philosophy", etc.). In my opinion, the first is the least important to sociological theory, followed by his journalism (which was quite sophisticated), and then finally his explicitly academic works.

The reason I say this is that I am afraid that Marx's historical materialism (at the root of conflict theory) is often oversimplified due to an overemphasis on his polemical works. Marx posited a dialectical relationship between the material and the ideal that was the reversal of the dialectic proposed by leading German philosopher Hegel. Hegel suggested that history was driven by the ideas of man; that is, the material condition of man was due to the development of human ideas and that this material condition also played a part in developing ideology. This can be simplistically referred to as historical idealism. Marx, by contrast, suggested that material forces drive history -- although we are not just passive actors either! A quote from "The German Ideology" might be illustrative:

"The social structure and the State are continually evolving out of the life-process of definite individuals, but... not as they may appear in their own or other people's imagination, but as they really are, i.e. as they operate, produce materially, and hence as they work under definite material limits, presuppositions, and conditions independent of their will." (McLellan translation, p. 180)

Um, so that's historical materialism in an oversimplified nutshell.

Marx made a lot of other important contributions to sociology, among them: the division of labor, class antagonism, alienated labor, surplus-value and capitalist accumulation, etc.

If this is for a class, I suspect that your teacher has a specific idea of what he/she thinks Marx's "Major Contribution" is, and has probably brought it up in class. If you think that Das Kapital is what was emphasized most, these are some important concepts:

- the difference between use-value (how much something is worth in terms of being useful or necessary) and exchange value (how much something is worth on the market). For example, diamonds have a very low use-value and a very high exchange-value, while rice (a staple to most of the world's population) has a very high use-value, but low exchange value.

- the production of capital: Marx describes the most basic circulation of commodities like this: C--M--C (that is, a commodity is converted into money [by selling it] and then that money is converted to another commodity [by buying something]). In capitalism, however, the production of capital is the opposite: M--C--M (that is, money is converted into a commodity which is then converted back into [more] money). He argues that this means: "Use-values must therefore never be looked upon as the real aim of the capitalist; neither must the profit on any single transaction. The restless never-ending process of profit-making alone is what he aims at."

- Labor power is a commodity that is sold on the market and used to produce surplus value for the capitalist

I could go on for hours and days, because Marx is pretty important in sociology. Hope this gives you some ideas and good luck.

Answer 2

Karl Marx Sociology

Answer 3

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RE:
What is Karl Marx's Major Contribution to Sociology? Was it his book Das Capital?

Answer 4

Karl Marx's basic contribution to sociology was the idea that economic needs of society serve as the driving force behind the human progress. Here is a simplified explanation of his theory:

Imagine an uninhabited island. Let's say, several people have to start living on the island. What would their very first concern be? To feed themselves, right? In order to feed themselves, they have to divide all the work among themselves. As a result, everyone will be doing his own specific work. There will be people working hard and people who supervise them or coordinate their work. These are called social groups and classes (proletariat, peasants, capitalists, government bureaucracy, etc.). These social groups will eventually have conflicts among themselves. Their goals will depend on their positions in society. The workers and peasants will want to liberate themselves from the oppression, the ruling elite will want to keep everyone in line. That's how revolutions (or uprisings) start.

Marx believed in a proletarian revolution (revolution of the workers), that would result in total equality of everyone in society. Of course, this was a utopia.

Answer 5

There are two main sociology perspectives- functionalism and conflict theory. Marx was the founder of, or inspiration of, conflict theory. His biggest contribution is the idea that social inequality (classes in capitalist societies) is the main factor producing social change,, the main factor shaping why a society is the way it is. That because of inequality, people and groups do not and cannot have shared interests in any given social issue.

Answer 6

When did it become adoration? How about a more fitting word, like interest. There are a lot of people who are not entranced by 'everything in today's society'. It would stand to reason they wouldn't be in line to adore Adam Smith, but still be interested in his ideas. Obviously self interest has existed since Adam took the apple from Eve and ate of it, and blamed his fall on her.

Answer 7

I have never read Carl Marx but have heard much of him. The effect of his thesis somehow related very well with the idea of dialectic materialism as a valid scientific method to approach the understanding of how determinism effects and is affected by the individual who not only is affected by others also affects others.

Answer 8

It was that and many more such as his strong advocation for the proletariat who are the masses. He advocates something like to each according to his needs and from each according to his capabilities. He was considered a genius of his times.