Karl Marx on Secular and Social Development: A Study in the Sociology of Nineteenth Century Social Science

In: Comparative studies in society and history, Band 6, Heft 2, S. 142-163

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present briefly the theories of secular social and economic development which can be found in the work of Karl Marx and to place them within the context of general thought and theorizing on these matters during the nineteenth century. I shall not present in this paper any new interpretations of Marx's theories, but shall merely try to show that Marx's views are related at many points to other theories on social and economic development proposed during his life and that in many ways he must be regarded as a typical thinker of that period of European social thought.