Class and Nonideal Social Ontology : Social Power, Hegemony, and the War of Positions

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to elaborate the analysis of economic class within Burman’s  ontological framework. To alleviate some shortcomings of Burman’s framework, I will make  use of concepts presented by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Further, I will draw on Sally  Haslanger’s notion of structural explanation to distinguish micro from macro-level  explanations and situate the second kind of explanation within class analysis. I will,  following some analytical Marxists, argue that there is a possible distinction to be made  between metaphysical reduction and explanatory reduction, and that class analysis requires  macro-level explanations. I will provide an outline account of how Burman’s framework can  be modified to accommodate macro-level explanations.