Abstract
This chapter focuses on “history” as the object of totality in Marx’s philosophy. It focuses on Marx’s theory of historical materialism as a key component of his mature philosophy, and explains its unique way of understanding history. It also highlights the relationship between historical materialism and Marx’s critique of the idealist and old materialist views of history. Marx’s view of history can be summarised in five aspects: history is a continuous expression of the sensuous activities of the individual; history is the unity of man and nature; history is a spiralling dialectical process characterised by a reversal of traditional ideas of time and the general trend of history is the gradual formation of world history and the all-round development of every individual.
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Notes
- 1.
“Old materialism” is a term that appears in Marx’s early text, Theses on Feuerbach, as opposed to the “new materialism” he aimed to develop. In Marx, it refers to “all hitherto-existing materialism.” As Marx said, “the standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society, or social humanity.” See Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach [Original version],” in Collected Works, ed. Marx–Engels, vol. 5 (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 5.
- 2.
Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” 3.
- 3.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “The German Ideology,” in Collected Works, ed. Marx–Engels, vol. 5, (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 41.
- 4.
See R. G. Collingwood, Editor’s Preface to The Idea of History.
- 5.
Marx and Engels, “The German Ideology,” 50.
- 6.
Marx and Engels, “The German Ideology,” 53–54.
- 7.
See Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” in Collected Works, ed. Marx–Engels, vol. 3 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1975), 336.
- 8.
Marx, “Manuscripts of 1844,” 337.
- 9.
Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” 5.
- 10.
See Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” in Collected Works, ed. Marx–Engels, vol. 6 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1976), 499. The second part of the book will elaborate on this view.
- 11.
Karl Marx, “Economic Manuscripts of 1857–58 (First Version of Capital),” in Collected Works, ed. Marx–Engels, vol. 28 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1986), 42.
- 12.
Marx, “Manuscripts of 1857–1858,” 42.
- 13.
Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” 5.
- 14.
The concept of nature here does not refer to the natural world, but is closer to a state as it is, in itself.
- 15.
See Karl Marx, “The Poverty of Philosophy,” in Collected Works, ed. Marx–Engels, vol. 6 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1976), 174.
- 16.
See Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” 50–51.
- 17.
Marx once mentioned in The German Ideology that “We know only a single science, the science of history. “But the passage was later deleted. It’s not clear why he did so, but in any case, he had already revealed his views. See Marx and Engels, “The German Ideology,” 28.
- 18.
Again in The German Ideology, Marx says, “Where speculation ends, where real life starts, there consequently begins real, positive science, the expounding of the practical activity, of the practical process of development of men.” See Marx and Engels, “The German Ideology,” 37.
- 19.
In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx mentioned that “History itself is a real part of natural history – of nature develo** into man. Natural science will in time incorporate into itself the science of man, just as the science of man will incorporate into itself natural science: there will be one science.” See Marx, “Manuscripts of 1844,” 304.
- 20.
Marx and Engels, “The German Ideology,” 37.
- 21.
Since the death of Marx, the law has been gradually reduced to two sentences: relations of production are determined by productive forces, and political superstructure is determined by economic basis. The famous passage in Marx’s A contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1857), as well as the statement about the development of productive forces in The German Ideology, are regarded as the best proof for the above reduction. To challenge such simplified explanation is one of purposes of this book.
- 22.
W. H. Walsh, Philosophy of History: An Introduction (New York: Harper & Row, 1960), 161.
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Li, Z. (2023). History as the Object of Totality. In: The Concept of the Individual in the Thought of Karl Marx. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22591-8_3
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