Ferdinand Tönnies and Karl Marx: about the Beginning of Marxism Academic Study

Ferdinand Tönnies and Karl Marx:
about the Beginning of Marxism Academic Study


Golovin N.A.

Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Department of theory and history of sociology, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia n.golovin@spbu.ru

ID of the Article:


The article is prepared with the support of The Centre for German and European Studies, Saint Petersburg State University – Bielefeld University, Grant 1/15/2019, and Ferdinand Tönnies Gesellschaft e.V., Kiel.


For citation:

Golovin N.A. Ferdinand Tönnies and Karl Marx: about the Beginning of Marxism Academic Study. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2019. No 8. P. 114-123




Abstract

The 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth actualized debates around his scientific heritage. With increased free access to scientific documents of Marxism founders, there was a shortage of conceptual approaches to their analysis. The article examines early interests of а German social philosopher and theoretical sociologist F. Tönnies (1855–1936) for Marx’ «Capital», as well as his attempts to establish personal contacts with F. Engels. Tönnies offered the first conceptual academic study of Marx’ works setting Marx as scholar apart from Marx as politician. In his book «Karl Marx – His Life and Teachings» (1921), the questions about the study of Marx are set and resolved, Marx’s research program is reconstructed, evolution of ‘six monographs plan’ is discussed; Marx’s labor theory of value and surplus value and its criticisms are analyzed from the standpoint of Tönnies’s ‘trade’ theory of capitalism. Tönnies analyzes critically adjacent teachings and matters raised in Marx’ «Capital». He makes systematic and theoretical criticisms of the absence of the entrepreneurs’ contribution to creation of surplus value as formulated by Marx. Tönnies answered the question about the difference between Marx and Engels in the styles of dialectical thinking there. The article defines the meaning of inferences and assessments of Marx by Tönnies for contemporary of Marx studies.


Keywords
Marx; Engels; Tönnies; Marx studies; history of social thoughts

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Content No 8, 2019