Elster 's Understanding Of Marx Based On Methodological Individualism

Methodological individualism is a kind of theory about how to explain the social phenomenon. Elster studied how Marx explained the social phenomenon and in which way he did it and his thought that in this course of explanation there coexisted two methodologyical propositions, both methodological individualism and methodological collectivism. He brought forward three levels of scientific interpretation models,I cause and effect interpretation, function interpretation and intention interpretation. Elster believes that all the dialectical methods can be expressed by analysis of the language. He advocates that Marx's social contradiction theory is the components of his theoretical background. Elster considers that social productive relations cannot be explained as productivity, while physical labor relations should be differentiated from social productive relations. He investigated, from the points of finance, exploitation, market behaviors and rights and etc. that to define classes is false. Elster deems that Marx deviated from the principle of methodological individualism when he studied the issue of distributive justice. From the view of Marxist that this kind of ways of analyzing and explaining social phenomenon has certain reference value for the study of other fields in China. Elster's methodological individualism is of great value and significance to the interpretation functions and of inspiration for us to deeply understand Marxism. Besides, this kind of analyzing and explaining also has limitations with its applications.