By This theory developed during the 19th century establishes that history is the product of economic and social relations. Here you will discover more about its characteristics.
Philosophy has always sought to understand the world around it. To do so, it creates theories influenced by its most immediate context. In the case of the historical materialism of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), it sought to provide an answer to the phenomena of its time.
That is to say, a world that was advancing at a very fast pace, but with little knowledge about the direction it would take and the consequences that this would bring. In this sense, Marx and Engels placed social conflict, economics and the evolution of history at the centre of their thinking.
What does historical materialism propose?
Karl Marx, together with his intellectual partner Friedrich Engels, proposed a philosophical theory known as historical materialism . It is a particular way of conceiving history and social relations. According to this, the economic structure of an era defines what Marx calls the superstructure, that is, the set of ideas that govern a particular historical moment.
This means that the actions and the way in which human beings live determine their way of thinking. Marx states that it is material conditions that determine existence. Even the concrete and real life that people lead shapes social, political and spiritual processes.
Accordingly, Marx’s historical materialism considers history as a process of progressive and evolutionary development. Thus, the advancement of society is explained by the struggle of new social forces in opposition to old ones. And this is what is known as social revolutions.
Origin
This theory emerged in the 19th century from the reflections and confrontations that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels carried out with other philosophical currents of the time. One of them was the idealism of Friedrich Hegel , from whom they took his dialectic to study how history evolves.
Marx and Engels distanced themselves from Hegelian idealism, according to which political institutions and the State were explained by the development of ideas. For historical materialism, every social phenomenon is interpreted through the material conditions of life.
Similarly, Marxist theory is inspired by the left-wing Young Hegelians, who transformed Hegel’s idealism into materialism. This is because they claimed that the true chains of human beings were their ideas.
The intellectuals behind this theory
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed historical materialism. Both came from aristocratic and bourgeois families, but due to their ideas they soon found themselves estranged from these ties. Their friendship and intellectual work began in 1844 when they met in Paris. From this moment on, their lives would be dedicated to defending and awakening the popular masses.
Before the meeting between these two thinkers, Marx was a journalist, writing for the Rheinische Zeitung . Engels worked for a few years in his family’s industry and then emigrated to other countries, drawing on his social ties and forging his revolutionary ideas.
Characteristics of historical materialism
The main characteristic of this materialism is the emphasis placed on work and the social relations that occur around it. Its creators also theorized a lot about how work is produced and the causes of the transition from one type of society to another. To do this, they used various concepts; let’s look at them in detail.
Dialectical materialism
Marx and Engels’ materialism holds that the development of history occurs through contradictions that are inevitable. On this basis, they take Hegel’s dialectic as a synthesis of opposites. Thus, within every society, conflicts arise between opposing classes that must be overcome. Thus, a new state of affairs is established, or a new mode of production, as happened with the transition from feudalism to capitalism .
Alienation
Karl Marx defines work as the essence of the human being. However, this intrinsic character of people only applies when they are in harmony with nature. In other words, they make the world their natural environment from which they extract the resources they need to live.
However, in the capitalist mode of production this human essence is expropriated, since the human being is stripped of his work.
In this sense, it no longer belongs to him; it now becomes the property of his employers. Because of this, work makes man unhappy and wears out his spirit.
Infrastructure and superstructure
Two very important concepts for understanding historical materialism are infrastructure and superstructure. Both are the key to understanding the importance that thinkers give to the relationship between the economic level of a society and its legal-political and ideological form .
Infrastructure refers to the economic base of society, while superstructure refers to social institutions. These include the State, laws, politics and law. This difference allows Marx to assert that it is the infrastructure that determines the superstructure. In short, it is the economy that determines ideas and institutions.
Social classes
According to this materialism, in every society there are two antagonistic social classes: the exploiters and the exploited. These intellectuals consider that the different political regimes in history arose thanks to the class struggle between these opposing strata.
Arrival of Communism
If in every society there are two antagonistic classes, in the capitalist era they are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. It is the workers who will restore humanity to men and carry out the social revolution. According to Marx, this is how we arrive at communism, a society without classes, without private property, without alienation and without a State.
Main criticisms of this theory
One of the main criticisms of historical materialism is presented in an article in the journal Philosophy of Economics . It states that some forced and simplifying readings of the theory generated a dogma around it.
This led to the use of such materialism to dialectically explain the whole of society, including phenomena that were outside of history. Thus, this philosophical theory ended up becoming what Marx and Engels so criticized, that is, an idealism.
Another very common criticism of the Marxist postulate is that it is weak and insufficient to explain the great complexity of the contemporary world. In this respect, the German philosopher’s prophecies were wrong, since our current reality is far from what Marx imagined in the mid-nineteenth century.
There was no such decline of capitalism, nor was there a workers’ government. Although attempts were made throughout the 20th century, most of them were unsuccessful.
Historical materialism through examples
To understand this materialism proposed by Marx and Engels, it is enough to look at history. It is a great theory to analyze the development of human societies and the antagonistic relationships that arise within them. One of the most significant milestones was the industrial revolution that displaced the old feudal economic system.
According to Marx and Engels, the development of new productive forces generates changes in the relations of production. Thus, the transition from feudalism to capitalism gave rise to two new social classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The antagonism between the two classes gave rise to conflicts that led to social revolutions, such as the Russian Revolution.
The French Revolution of 1789 is another illustrative example of historical materialism. According to this, feudal society generated conflicts between the emerging bourgeoisie and the feudal lords.
Added to this situation was a context of generalised crisis and the consequent inability of the monarchy to adapt to the new economic realities. The result was a social explosion that affected both politics and the economy of the whole of Europe.
The legacy and relevance of this materialism
The historical materialism of Marx and Engels was a theory that was very much in opposition to previous philosophies. On this basis, a way of interpreting society, the economy and class relations was built, which has had a great impact in later times.
In fact, many of his ideas were expressed in social organizations and revolutions that sought to make visible the injustices of the capitalist system. Although Marx’s predictions about the decline of capitalism were not accurate, they did serve to generate a critical theory about the world in which we live.