Class consciousness

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Class consciousness is the specific conception of a class about its fundamental interests and role in society as well as its material conditions of existence . Following a formulation by Karl Marx , a distinction was often made in the reception of his work between the “ class in itself ” and the “ class for itself ”, and this concept was associated with Hegel's thinking. A class given “ in itself ” by its position in the given production conditions can only become a class that acts politically “for itself” if it learns, fights and collects experience together. Friedrich Engels defined the term "class-conscious" as an individual's awareness of his own class position.

The reception of the concept turned out to be differentiated. Already at the beginning of the 20th century there were disputes between the social democratic revisionism / reformism of Bernstein , Lenin's avant-gardism , Rosa Luxemburg's theory of spontaneity, as well as Antonio Gramsci's or Georg Lukács ' "Philosophy of Practice" as to the conditions under which it is possible to create class . to develop collective identity awareness and thus class-conscious behavior.

While in orthodox interpretations and non-Marxist receptions the classes, their political struggles, the consciousness of individual individuals etc. are often understood as derived from a purely economic movement, Marxists such as Gramsci, Althusser , Poulantzas etc. emphasize the social emergence of classes in economic, political, ideological relationships of domination or practices, from which a complex emergence of forms of consciousness of one's own class situation results in contested economic, political and ideological relationships of domination.

See also

literature

Remarks

  1. Cf. Michael Heinrich , Which classes and which fights? In: Grundrisse , 11, 2004 .: “In Marxist debates this difference was often referred to as“ class in itself ”and“ class in itself ” based on a formulation from the“ misery of philosophy ”(...).” Critical Wolfgang Fritz Haug in: Preface , HKWM Volume 7.1: “Search processes sometimes come to the result that a commonplace ascribed to Marx is of unknown origin. So when talking about class in itself / for itself. ”Note: Marx speaks of the class for itself, but not of the class itself. See footnote 3.
  2. a b Dieter Nohlen , Rainer-Olaf Schultze (ed.): Lexicon of political science. Theories, methods, terms . Volume 1, 2005, p. 435.
  3. Karl Marx : Das Elend der Philosophie , 1847. In: MEW , Volume 4, p. 180 f .: “The economic conditions first transformed the mass of the population into workers. The rule of capital has created a common situation and common interests for this mass. So this mass is already a class in relation to capital, but not yet for itself. In the struggle (...) this mass comes together, constitutes itself as a class for itself. The interests it defends become class interests. But the struggle of class against class is a political struggle. "
  4. Friedrich Engels : On the criticism of the social democratic draft program 1891 , MEW Vol. 22, p. 232: "Instead of" class conscious ", which is an easily understandable abbreviation among our circles, I would say in the interests of general understanding and translation into foreign languages: "With the workers who have become aware of their class position" or something similar. "(Referring to the following passage in the draft of the Erfurt party program :" In this realization, the Social Democratic Party of Germany feels and declares itself to be one with the class-conscious workers of all other countries. ")