“中产阶级”研究:疑问与探源

Studying the Middle Class: Questions and Search of the Origin

中产阶级研究源远流长,马克思主义对中产阶级的研究开创了社会学意义上的中产阶级研究。虽在马克思恩格斯以前,已经有哲学家、经济学家、历史学家和空想社会主义者使用过中产阶级概念或对中产阶级进行过讨论,但第一个从社会学意义上对中产阶级进行研究的是恩格斯而不是马克思。马克思恩格斯研究的中产阶级不能完全等同于今天学者们研究的中产阶级,而且财产状况和财产关系并非马克思恩格斯划分中产阶级的唯一标准,阶级意识、政治与社会地位及文化心理都被马克思恩格斯纳入中产阶级研究的范围。

Research on the middle class has been going on for a long time. It was the Marxists who initiated the study of the middle class in the true sense of sociology, although long before the works by Marx and Engels, numerous philosophers, economists, historians, and utopian socialists had already adopted the conception of “middle class” and did some discussion in that area. The first scholar who did the sociological analysis of the middle class was not Karl Marx, but Engels. It has to be pointed out that the “middle class” conceptualized by Marx and Engels is not completely the same as what today’s scholars are studying. When Marx and Engles defined the middle class, wealth accumulation and property relationships were never the sole standards. Class consciousness, sociopolitical status, and psychocultural mind were all included in the scope of the middle class for study.