How To Interpret Superstructure?: Superstructure can be simply defined as the ideologies that dominate a particular era, all that “men say, imagine, conceive,” including such things as “politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc.” For Marx, the superstructure is generally dependent on the modes of production that dominate in a given period. Superstructure is a term from Marxist social analysis, central to the materialist concept of history and social development. In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces.
The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real basis, on which rises a legal and political superstructure, and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness – K. Marx in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. It is argued that Marx’s attempt to conceptualize social structure cannot be reduced to the base/superstructure model. Marx shows that the economic structure or base is not a structure of people. It is an abstract and empty structure of the relations between the productive forces in the economy. The actual persons or forces play no part of the structure. Taken out of the actual world, and into the empty, abstract domain of the economic structure, a power is simply the ability to perform a particular action.
Taken in aggregate, the economic structure would be a set of these abilities, and the positions with more abilities consequently become the dominant class. In this structure there are no normative constraints, there is simply material possibilities, and enabling powers. The normative image of relations of production only appears after the actors and forces are placed in the structure, and the superstructure is placed over the top. Marx argues that the fundamental base of any society, which permeates and shapes all its other legal, political and intellectual characteristics, is the social relations of production: the social and technological way that production is organized and carried out. These relations of production provide the social foundation on which develops the superstructure of legal and political relations and human intellectual ideas and conscious-ness.
Law as Superstructure:
What is law and who forms it? Actually, at every point in history some of the human minds are always at work to frame law in order to legitimize the misappropriations of socially generated resources by a few in the society. In fact it is the owing class which misappropriates the surplus in a legal way. This makes the existing law a perspective for the state to function under, and also at the same time offers sufficient space to the large bureaucracy ana judiciary to expand by the implementation and administration of justice. The irony is evident here. We need to look at the version of justice, which is projected to the masses by the privileged section of the society. The way justice is explained and interpreted is completely dependent on the requirement of mode of production and is projected by the privileged section as something which is moral, spiritual, ethical and universal.
Going on with this point of view we can simply understand justice as the social sanction for the simple purpose of exploitation and misappropriation, however the owing class would call it their right and not misappropriation. This simple complex is, however, very complex if worked out in philoso-phical terms. It would be interesting to notice in this respect, that how legal celebrities go on with the debates on the topic in all over the world. We can understand legal superstructure in terms of the working of the mode of production as both are quite close. It deals directly with the reason or logical justification behind the social distribution and helps in persuading and convincing the working class that the only right they have is on what they receive as wages.
In this way the extremes of their rights are limited and by extension their psyche and consciousness. Unlike legal superstructure others like philosophical, cultural and legal superstructures can be said to have a delicate link with base, because the individuals who are operative in these spheres, share a notion of independent operation.
The Political Superstructure:
According to Marx, the most important place of human existence is political realm, as it is the only realm where people struggle and fight their battle for the change. The formation of political groups, like political parties are very crucial as it reflects the idea of specific class and helps in the mobilization of the masses on behalf of that specific class. In this context it is important to look at the role which trade unions played in England and France in the midnineteenth century, as they help in attracting attention towards the burning issues of the age.
How crucial is politics to the ruling bourgeois class can be very well understood in terms of the fact that it has enabled entrepreneurship and industry to decisively seize economic power from feudal nobility and aristocratic class in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Considering the role which politics played in the history, it would not be unjustified to call it a science of changing the society. One reason that Marx and other later thinkers gave utmost importance to the political superstructure is that, it works directly on the base to transform its working. Politics is always concerned about present and contemporary. It also provides an activist edge to philosophy, ideology, religious beliefs, culture and literature.
The Religious Superstructure:
It may not sound normal that the concept of God and religion shares a tangible link or connection with the social structure and that the universal or so called eternal religious values have their roots in the social functioning of their times. These so called religious principles form a concrete link with the society in which exist and work upon an important a definite role. These help in changing people’s point of view and ideologies. There is little doubt that these connection with the mundane human existence, but this very stance of religious outlook is questionable. In fact we can go ahead and label of social pressure and compulsions on the various religious beliefs and practices which exist in the society.
Lots of changes which Christianity has undergone after renaissance can be related to the various social and political changes in the society of Europe. Another important point which we must bring our attention to is the two different conceptions of God, i.e. feudal conception of God and capitalist conception of God. The feudal conception of God is very different from that of the capitalist conception of God; the former is operative, overbearing and paternally beneficent, while the latter is relatively sympathetic, friendly and persuasive. It would be quite interesting to look at the various aspects of relational principles from this point of view which lets us peek into the basic foundation of religious belief, which in fact is deeply rooted in the social practices of the time.
In this context looking at the Milton’s idea of God and the son would be fascinating, as Milton in his magnum opus Paradise Lost attribute highly divine attitudes in his portrayal of God and the Son. As the there was a radical change at the base, the entire idea of God and Christianity underwent a radical transformation in the writings of eighteenth century. Let us now look at the two very clear end points of the religious superstructure. The first end-point of this superstructure touches the religious, spiritual and emotional state of the ordinary people, whereas the at the second end point we have highly religious thinkers, poets, and writers who reflects the new responses to the already established norms and notions of religious and spiritual beliefs.
Both of these ends amalgamate to answer the new and fresh social questions. Let us understand this by the help of Parson Adams, a character from Fielding’s Joseph Andrews. Adams is not a typical and traditional follower and preacher of Christianity rather he has been portrayed by fielding as a good friend, a person who enjoys a lot, and is interesting in reading and drinking. Though there is no doubt that his basic foundation is essentially Christian in nature, but within that we witness a new and radical eighteenth century English response to Christianity.
We can say that Adams is a representation of a religious superstructure and Fielding, who depicts the working of this superstructure in the novel, seems to enjoy the presence of strong secular component of it. Adams can be seen as the symbol of religious requirement of the time, without whose help the new emerging merchants and traders can never think of internalizing with the old and traditional view or conception of Christianity. The working of philosophical and cultural superstructure is still more intricate. And the dominant reason which makes them work in a very peculiar fashion is that they deal directly with the ideas, feelings and emotions.
The key point which distinguished philosophy with that of the religion is faith’. In religion one has to just preach or tell, and everything else is being done by the faith of listener, but in philosophy one has to work out, analyze and explain in order to make people understand. In religion faith does not allow people to question the tenet but question is the mainstay of philosophy, without which the entire concept would fall. This concept of philosophical superstructure makes it more independent from base and the two end-points that we have discussed earlier do not exist in case of philosophical superstructure.
While understanding these key concepts one must keep in mind that there is no one-to-one correlation between these superstructures and the economic mode and that people would only see economic mode as distortion than in realist propor-tion. The Actual and Potential Role of Philosophy as Superstructure It is the abstract nature of philosophical concepts which help in formation of coherent pattern of the ordinary details of life. Well, this is an important aspect form the standpoint of social function. The ordinary happenings in life does not make much sense, or rather say that they do seem to be important unless they are seen as a part of a specific phenomenon.
Philosophy draws our attention towards these daily happenings, by placing them in a general perspective. Thus philosophy helps us in comprehending so called insignificant happing and tells us that they are not as insignificant as they might appear to us. When this act of thought is put into the context of ruling class ideas, it would appear that they try to harness this intellectual branch of study for the sheer political use. But this does not work as there is a problem. The nature of philosophy is not passive and that it can stretch itself beyond the limits set by the governing class.
This happens in many a case that philosophy becomes a useful tool in the analysis of the existing mode and when it is taken to a step higher, it can give an impression of universality, What would be the result if we go ahead and question the moral practice or preference of a given time? This question can help us understand that philosophy works as a double edged weapon, because of its social potential. In a given point of time we question certain happenings in the society, for the simple reason that we do feel satisfied enough with those happenings.
This clash which takes place between the opposing views in th superstructure enables us to evolve new principles of behaviour. Due to this we start looking at the ideas and principle which are there in the present and are rooted in the past. Let think that we take some ideas which have their roots in past and question their validity in the new situation of the present. This will put us in a very different intellectual scenario. To use the Marx’s phrase, we will confront “reality withy reason”. It is very much possible that while questioning the thoughts we are to an extent inspired by the development of other nations or at least we have those development in our mind. This gives the immensity to the course of philosophical discourse.
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