Le statut épistémologique du concept marxiste de classe sociale: étude de l’idéologie allemande, conceptualisation et actualisation

Details

Supervisors

Maesschalck, Marc

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en philosophie, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

enThis philosophy paper discusses the elaboration of the epistemological status of social class as a concept in Marxist theory. Our research is centered around K. Marx and F. Engels’ German Ideology. It contains the elaboration of a materialist, historical and dialectical method that allows us to establish a praxis and a materialist gnoseology implying our epistemology. On this basis, we propose a gnoseological structure of the human being supporting the scientific role of the dialectical concept. This structure allows us to find, in Marx and Engels’ study, the methodological and historical presuppositions that lay the foundations of the analysis of social class as a phenomenon. Our readings bring us to understand that the concept of class comes from the historical dynamics of social relations and productive forces where production is fractured between activity and property. Supported by a theory of needs, we understand that our class societies function antagonistically and dialectically through work socialization, unfolding itself by the means of alienating social laws producing fractured needs among communities of interests. Secondly, we analyze the context of appearance of social class as a phenomenon, the non-Marxist evolutions of the notion of social class and the strategic use of this notion, and we confront our study to the actualizations of this notion that propose new classes or the end of them. Finally, this work aims to be of use as a conceptual tool, both for practical and scientifical applications.