Myśl społeczna Zygmunta Baumana przed Marcem 1968: od „mechanistycznej” do „aktywistycznej” wersji marksizmu
The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman before March 1968: from the “Mechanistic” to the “Activistic” Version of Marxism

Summary/Abstract: In the middle of the 1960s Bauman indicated two ways of interpretation of Karl Marx’ thought. The former he defined as “mechanistic”, the latter as “activistic”. He stated that the representatives of the mechanistic one emphasise the concept of historical necessity. They aim at exploring the direction of social processes and making people conscious of it. The representatives of the activistic version of Marxism concentrate on the role of human praxis. They emphasise the role of individual initiative in making history. The typology made by Bauman is useful not only in making research of Marxist thought, but in outlining the evolution of his own very early sociology as well. When he began his academic career in Poland he had strongly believed in the laws of history and had anticipated the quick “leap to the Kingdom of Freedom”. However, in the course of time his view on this subject had changed. Short before his expulsion from Poland he accepted the “activistic” interpretation of Marxism, based on the indeterministic vision of society. In this paper I present this evolution and indicate the social and political factors that contributed to it. Another aim of this article is to evaluate the very early Marxist thought of Zygmunt Bauman.

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