SOAN 2112 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Productive Forces, For Marx, Technological Determinism
2 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
Once passed away in 1883, marxism came to stand for a theory in which economic and other material factors explained the structure of society and the course of history. The history of persons throughout the centuries is to be explained by a changing, complex interplay of strictly material causes. Marx focus on the connections between economic development and social class formation was reduced to a form of technological determinism. Economic and historical changes were thus made to depend directly on technical changes in the instruments of work. In time, both economic and technological determinism came to be regarded as one side and misleading. In recent years however this open view has gone under attack. Several recent studies of his social thought have attributed to him a narrow technological and productive form determinism. Cohen sees primacy as means of unidirectional and rejects any dialectical and that relations do condition the forces. Marx famous preface (page 153 & 154 for the quote*)
