It is beyond any doubt that the intellectual legacy of Karl Marx stands as one of the most formidable and influential critiques of modern society.
Written in the mid-19th century, amidst the smoky factories and sprawling slums of the Industrial Revolution, his ideas sought to diagnose the ills of the emerging capitalist order and prescribe a revolutionary cure.
At the heart of Marx’s worldview is a concept known as historical materialism.
Rejecting the idea that history is driven by great ideas or powerful individuals alone, Marx argued that the primary driver of historical change is the material or economic conditions of life.
He famously stated that "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness".
In other words, the way humans organize their production and exchange of goods fundamentally shapes their society, culture, politics, and even their beliefs.
This already is an intellectual brain teaser. In several projects we have spend a lot of attention to consciousness and materialism, but we never elaborated on historical materialism.
An explanation could be, that in this term the emphasis is more on "historical" than on "materialism". It has a lot to do with German philosopher Georg Friedrich Wilhem Hegel.
During his life he was the most influential philosopher in Europe and professor at the University of Berlin. He died in 1831 and Marx enrolled at this university in 1836. So he never met Hegel but he met is lasting influence on philosophy.
In 1837 Marx begins seriously studying Hegel's works and even joins the "Doktorklub", a group of "Young Hegelians". What attracted Marx in the philosophy of Hegel?
It was Hegel's interpretation of history. Hegel saw history as a process of progress through conflict.
This process, the dialectic, involves an idea or situation, which he called the THESIS, giving rise to its opposite, which he called the ANTITHESIS.
The clash between them results in a new, higher-level SYNTHESIS, which in turn becomes a new thesis. Marx borrowed this dynamic, logical structure.
For Hegel, the driving force of history was the "World Spirit" / "Geist", a kind of universal consciousness or idea striving for freedom and self-realization. History was the story of ideas unfolding.
I'll not elaborate on the question of how Hegel "discovered" this World Spirit, for that is a whole different chapter of the history of philosophy.
I prefer to follow Karl Marx. Marx argued that the real driver of history is not ideas or consciousness, but material conditions.
He asserted that it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.
For Marx, the dialectic is not between ideas, but between social classes, rooted in the economic base of society.
So, from Hegel, Marx took the dialectical method, which means that history is a dynamic process of conflict and change, but replaced the idealist engine, "the World Spirit", with a materialist one: the class struggle over economic resources.
That is how the maxist theory began.
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
of Economic Thought (2012)
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
The Discussion
[14:12] Max Chatnoir: So the Zeitgeist is economics?
[14:13] herman Bergson: Economics is indeed a dominating them in many ppolitical debates
[14:13] Stranger Nightfire: Reminds me that one thing I don't have in common with marx His materialism itself
[14:13] Max Chatnoir: I wonder if Darwin had read Hegel?
[14:13] Stranger Nightfire: I am an idealist
[14:14] Stranger Nightfire: but not sure how much difference that makes overall
[14:14] herman Bergson: I don't know Max
[14:15] herman Bergson: The materialism of Marx seems to me no more than his belief that things were influenced by real economic processes in the real world
[14:15] herman Bergson: He just didn't accept the metaphysicsa of Hegel
[14:16] Stranger Nightfire: Wasn't Darwin for that matter actually religious
[14:16] Max Chatnoir: Until his daughter died.
[14:17] herman Bergson: I don't know what metaphysics or religious ideas Darwin believed in
[14:18] Max Chatnoir: Sorry, didn't mean to divert.
[14:19] Stranger Nightfire: Well Marx certainly did not cut into religion very much
[14:19] herman Bergson: Unless he believed in some transcendental plan, I can see his theory of evolution only as a materialist look at reality
[14:19] Stranger Nightfire: Though I think he did say that he was influenced to some extent by the teachings of Jesus
[14:19] Stranger Nightfire: Thought of Jesus sort of a proto Marxist
[14:19] herman Bergson: Marx was not in favor of religion
[14:20] Stranger Nightfire: Opiate of the masses
[14:20] herman Bergson: Right
[14:20] Stranger Nightfire: It is often served that function for sure
[14:20] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaah
[14:21] Max Chatnoir: So, with the complexity of economics, how can the social rules be set fairly?
[14:21] Stranger Nightfire: Apologies for my voice to text algorithm
[14:21] herman Bergson: Yes, religion shaped the social conditions of the masses
[14:22] herman Bergson: Well Max, that will be a nice theme for the next lecture about Marx's ideas and how he looed at that issue :-)
[14:23] herman Bergson: The class struggle between proletatiat and the rich people for instance
[14:23] Max Chatnoir: Yes, it's at sticky issue.
[14:24] Max Chatnoir: a
[14:24] Stranger Nightfire: Seems to me that pretty much from the time people started planting crops society became hierarchical and unfair
[14:25] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[14:25] herman Bergson: I agree... seems obvious to me, for in that way you could produce more than you needed and thus accumulate property, c.q. wealth
[14:27] Max Chatnoir: c.q.?
[14:27] herman Bergson: And since mankind never set a limit to this accumulation of wealth huge inequality was born
[14:27] herman Bergson: casu que...in this case
[14:27] herman Bergson: quo
[14:27] Max Chatnoir: Ah, thanks!
[14:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): inndeed
[14:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): no limits
[14:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[14:28] herman Bergson: And that was the world MArx lived in in those days.
[14:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): no limits and infinite growth mandatory
[14:29] Stranger Nightfire: Some are saying the inequality today is greater than any other time in human history
[14:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[14:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well i can see that
[14:29] Max Chatnoir: Interesting form of slavery. Buy somebody.
[14:29] Stranger Nightfire: When you consider that three have about the same wealth as 50% of the entire human population on the planet That would seem likely
[14:29] Stranger Nightfire: 3 guys that is
[14:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[14:30] herman Bergson: Yes indeed Stranger....bizar actually
[14:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[14:31] herman Bergson: But we still find it an acceptable situation
[14:31] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): realy?
[14:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): not me
[14:31] Max Chatnoir: congress?
[14:32] herman Bergson: Ok, some question it... ㋡
[14:32] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): how muc money does one need to live a good life?
[14:32] herman Bergson: That is it Beertje.... we never made this question a standard
[14:32] Stranger Nightfire: I am all for 100% tax rate or anything over a billion dollars
[14:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[14:33] Max Chatnoir: Just make that kind of slavery illegal.
[14:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): tax and make the tax money finance importat research ect for all of makind
[14:34] Stranger Nightfire: There is today a brilliant Marxist economist name Richard Wolff It was well worth listening to
[14:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): the we will all progress together
[14:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): then
[14:34] herman Bergson: I know that name, Stranger
[14:35] Stranger Nightfire: Actually I think he likes the Marxian
[14:35] Stranger Nightfire: maybe just to get away from the stigma of a Marxist
[14:36] Stranger Nightfire: Nice to make it clear to people being a Marxist is not being a Stalinist
[14:37] herman Bergson: You shouldn't label people but just listen to their arguments.
[14:37] herman Bergson: Because most of the time people say..You are a Marxist...so I listen to you
[14:38] Stranger Nightfire: A lot of current Marxists have in fact rather libertarian views on hierarchies and central planning and authoritarianism
[14:40] herman Bergson: I meant ..I don't listen to you
[14:40] Max Chatnoir: Thanks, Herman.
[14:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aah
[14:41] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): listen to someone doesn't mean you agreee with the person
[14:41] herman Bergson: Well, our first observation is that Marx looked ath the historical process and is called materialist because he looked at real social relations among people and not at ideas..
[14:41] Stranger Nightfire: There is an interesting Youtube titled I Am Not Black about putting labesl on people
[14:42] herman Bergson: Ok...
[14:43] herman Bergson: In the next lecture we'll look into how Marx saw these social relations and their consequences....
[14:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): oki
[14:44] Max Chatnoir: and it will be at 2 PM SLE.
[14:44] Max Chatnoir: SLT
[14:44] herman Bergson: So,, unless you have that final question or remark...>...Class at 2 PM SL-time this week and next week for people from the US.
[14:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aah
[14:45] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): ツ
[14:45] herman Bergson: Thank you all again for your participation :-)
[14:45] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): thank you Herman
[14:45] herman Bergson: Class dismissed
[14:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
