Marx Marginalism and Modern Sociology

What is the conceptual basis of the modern disciplines ofeconomics and sociology? Talcott Parsons hailed theemergence of the 'voluntaristic theory of action', above all, inthe work of Max Weber as the breakthrough to a scientificsociology, just as historians of economics acclaim the'marginalist revolution'. Simon Clarke argues that theseevents are connected, that marginalist economics created thepossibility of its sociological complement, Weberiansociology. Marx, Marginalism and Modern Sociology argues that the 'marginalist revolution' was not a scientific revolution but thebasis of a reformulation of an established ideology, politicaleconomy, in response to the rise of an organised workingclass. It provided, Clarke argues, the intellectual basis for arange of political responses to that challenge and to thedemands for the reform of capitalism that it entailed. This book argues that sociology and economics areinseparable: that all economic theories are necessarilytheories of society and that any social theory must rest on aparticular conception of the economy. Taking the path ofhistorical development Simon Clarke shows how Marx'scritique of classical political economy was primarily addressedto its naturalistic theory of capitalist society, which gave it anideological character. The development of sociology andhistoricism, of marginalist economics and of Weber'ssociology from the ashes of classical political economy, usingthe same ideological foundations, make Marx's critique ofcontinuing relevance in the evaluation of the artificiallyseparate modern disciplines of economics and sociology. First published by Macmillan in 1982, the first edition of this book is now available in Kindle format.