The role and perspectives of Marxist theory in the social analysis of knowledge

This article presents a reconstruction of Marx's views on the role of social factors in the formation and development of knowledge. The following main lines in the analysis of Marx's theory are demonstrated: the critical review “fetish” of goods, the conceptualization of ideology, the interpretation of science, the typologization of production (separation of a special type of social production), and the practical nature of cognitive activity. Besides, the author reviews some ideas of Andre Gorz, which assesses the modern interpretation of “cognitive capitalism” by means of clarifying K. Marx's category of “social alienation” and the analysis of exchange value in the conditions of the formation of the paradigm of the knowledge economy. The author argues for the crucial role of K. Marx in the development and theoretical justification of views, according to which the theory of knowledge cannot be formed without analyzing the impact of social parameters on knowledge, and substantiates the high explanatory potential of Marxist theory in the framework of neo-capitalist approaches to the analysis of presen