The role and perspectives of Marxist theory in the social analysis of knowledge

Natalya N. Pogozhi­na
Lomonosov Moscow State Uni­ver­si­ty

The role and per­spec­tives of Marx­ist the­o­ry in the social analy­sis of knowl­edge

Abstract. This arti­cle presents a recon­struc­tion of Marx’s views on the role of social fac­tors in the for­ma­tion and devel­op­ment of knowl­edge. The fol­low­ing main lines in the analy­sis of Marx’s the­o­ry are demon­strat­ed: the crit­i­cal review “fetish” of goods, the con­cep­tu­al­iza­tion of ide­ol­o­gy, the inter­pre­ta­tion of sci­ence, the typol­o­giza­tion of pro­duc­tion (sep­a­ra­tion of a spe­cial type of social pro­duc­tion), and the prac­ti­cal nature of cog­ni­tive activ­i­ty. Besides, the author reviews some ideas of Andre Gorz, which assess­es the mod­ern inter­pre­ta­tion of “cog­ni­tive cap­i­tal­ism” by means of clar­i­fy­ing K. Marx’s cat­e­go­ry of “social alien­ation” and the analy­sis of exchange val­ue in the con­di­tions of the for­ma­tion of the par­a­digm of the knowl­edge econ­o­my. The author argues for the cru­cial role of K. Marx in the devel­op­ment and the­o­ret­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of views, accord­ing to which the the­o­ry of knowl­edge can­not be formed with­out ana­lyz­ing the impact of social para­me­ters on knowl­edge, and sub­stan­ti­ates the high explana­to­ry poten­tial of Marx­ist the­o­ry in the frame­work of neo-cap­i­tal­ist approach­es to the analy­sis of present.
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Key­words: K. Marx, marx­ism, social epis­te­mol­o­gy, Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Stud­ies, soci­ol­o­gy of knowl­edge, spir­i­tu­al pro­duc­tion, ide­ol­o­gy, cog­ni­tive-cul­tur­al econ­o­my, knowl­edge, neo­cap­i­tal­ist approach.

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20181333

Acknowl­edge­ments

The research has been per­formed with­in the grant No. 14–18-02227 “Social Phi­los­o­phy of Sci­ence: Russ­ian Prospects” of Russ­ian Sci­ence Foun­da­tion.

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