STRUCTURALISM IN SOCIOLOGY “the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure”

MARX’S STRUCTURAL THOUGHT Theory of Man Theory of Society

THEORY OF MAN man's value consists in his ability to conceive of the ends of his action as purposeful ideas distinct from any given step of realizing them: man is able to objectify his intentional efforts in an idea of himself (the subject) and an idea of the thing which he produces (the object).

THEORY OF MAN Animals, according to Marx, do not objectify themselves or their products as ideas because they engage in self- sustaining actions directly, without sustained future projection or conscious intention.

THEORY OF MAN Gattungswesen = Species-Being

THEORY OF MAN ALIENATION Alienation of the worker from the work he produces, from the product of his labor. Alienation of the worker from working, from the act of producing itself. Alienation of the worker from himself as a producer, from his or her "species being" or "essence as a species".

THEORY OF SOCIETY SOCIAL NATURE OF MAN’S EXISTENCE In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.

THEORY OF SOCIETY SOCIAL DYNAMICS/PARTS OF SOCIETY The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.

THEORY OF SOCIETY SOCIAL DYNAMICS/PARTS OF SOCIETY The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.

THEORY OF SOCIETY THEORY OF HISTORY At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto.

THEORY OF SOCIETY THEORY OF HISTORY From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.

STRUCTURE OVER INDIVIDUAL “IT IS NOT THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MEN THAT DETERMINES THEIR BEING, IT IS THEIR BEING THAT DETERMINES THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS.”