Elster's Methodological Individulism

Analytical Marxism emerged in the late 1970s as a self-conscious school of thought which has the greatest potential in western Marxism. Jon Elster as one of the founders paid much attention on the methodologies of Karl Marx. This essay firstly proves that methodological individualism as the search of micro-foundations plays a fundamental role in Analytical Marxism. Then the essay explores the meanings and applications of Methodological Individualism in the context of Elster's new causal-cum-intentional frame. Then the essay makes some comments on Methodological Individualism in the context of the tradition of western social sciences. In the last, the essay researches Marx's views on individual and the micro-foundations of Marx's political economy. The conclusion of this essay is that Elster's Methodological Individualism is one of important approaches to Marxism and has great power of interpretation, but is not created by Marx and is not the foundation of Marxist methodologies. It's true that Methodological Individualism was misunderstood by some scholars. But we must be aware of its ideological assumptions.