SOC101Y1 : reading notes
Document Summary
after marx"s death, marxism became known as a theory in which economic and other material factors explained the structure of society and the course of history. marxism was reduced to a one-factor theoryeconomy means everything. marx"s focus on the connections between economic development and social class formation was reduced to a form of technological determinism by his followers. Changes in an important element of production (ex: discovered of a new fuel, raw material) was said to determine the movement of history. In time, prominent marxists exposed these views as distortions of marx"s ideas. recently, this view has itself become under attack- there has been a reversion to the older, deterministic versions of marx"s ideas. cohen- adopts the technological label but not the determinist one. Believes that for marx, history is the development of human power but the course of its development is not subject to human will.