Gramsci and Marxist Sociology of Knowledge: an Analysis of Hegemony—Ideology—Knowledge*

This paper is an attempt to analyze the fundamental components of Gramsci's Marxist theory: the assertion of absolute historicism and humanism over economic determinism, the primacy of superstructural over infrastructural activities, the primacy of ideological over political hegemony and the subjective over the objective dimension in Marxist theory of history and society. Furthermore, after reviewing the historical development of the sociology of knowledge and contrasting Marx, Mannheim, Stark, and Gurvitch with Gramsci's theoretical positions, an attempt is made to delineate a Gramscian sociology of knowledge. In its basic framework, the ideologization of thought is pressed to its extreme; the theory of knowledge becomes the theory of ideology; the totality of sociocultural phenomena is ultimately subordinated to the hermeneutic criterion of “critical consciousness” of subaltern classes developed in their ascendant movement toward idological and political hegemony, and the success of positivist methodology is explained in terms of the masses' lack of critical consciousness. In conclusion, the Gramscian sociology of knowledge becomes a form of critical consciousness. Its validity resides in its ideological function of intellectually organizing the experiences of the masses. Thus, ideologies cease to be viewed as intellectual processes mystifying social reality as in Marx and Mannheim and acquire true historical, psychological, and gnosiological value.     

The Specificity of Marxist Sociology in Gramsci's Theory

This paper analyzes the relationship between sociology and Marxism and attempts to delineate the fundamental components of sociology within the framework of Marxist theory as presented in the voluminous writings of Gramsci. After reviewing Gramsci's systematic critique of positivist sociology and that brand of Marxism which accepts any positivist canon of analysis, the paper focuses on certain Gramscian concepts hermeneutically useful for a macro-sociology of social structures. Of great importance is the concept of catharsis , that is the development of a given fundamental social group from a mere economic to an hegemonic entity, entailing a process of transformation of the structure of a given historical bloc and the nature and functions of intellectuals in the organization of the ideological, juridical, and political superstructure. The paper concludes that Gramsci's sociology contains specific sociohistorical criteria very useful in understanding how dominant hegemonic systems disintegrate and new ones are formed.