Abstract

This thesis is an investigation of the conceptual structure of the two theoretically distinct concepts of social transformation which underlie Karl Marx's understanding of the process of epochal transition from one mode of production to another. These concepts of transition, which have hitherto remained unidentified in the literature, we call the concept of revolution by incremental transformation and the concept of revolution by radical disjuncture. ;While the principal focus of this thesis centres on an attempt to describe and illustrate these concepts, we also seek to locate their genesis and development within the overall framework of Marx's philosophical critique of capital, his theory of historical materialism and his analysis of the economic mode of production and reproduction of the socioeconomic formation. As such, our aim is to extend and deepen the Marxian investigation of the mode of functioning of specific modes of production. ;In addition, we also seek to suggest that it is on the basis of these two concepts of epochal transition that all subsequent debates and disagreements within the Marxist movement regarding the process of social transformation may be understood and a foundation created for their resolution