Historical Materialism: Marx and Engels' Theory of Social Change

Historical materialism, developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is a theory that aims to study society and the laws governing its development. These laws are objective, independent of consciousness, and knowable. Humans employ these laws in their practical activity. Historical materialism provides a scientific study of social reality and its historical evolution from a materialistic standpoint.

Marx developed general concepts that allow the study of any society as a whole, not just at a particular historical moment. Through economic, historical, and philosophical theories, Marx sought to discover the laws governing social change and presented a method for interpreting social conflict and its transformation. The German Ideology already contains the seeds of historical materialism. Nature and history cannot be regarded as antithetical, as if they were two different things. The origins of humans as producers of their own lives through work are inherently social.

Marx and Engels argued that revolutions in history are due to material and economic causes. It is humans as workers, with their needs and material interests, who make history. Starting from different paths, Marx's critique of Hegelian philosophy and Engels' critical analysis of bourgeois economy reached the conclusion that the history of society cannot be understood without recognizing the self-production of humans through work and the concrete social conditions that, until then, had involved the exploitation of man by man.

The Core of Historical Materialism

The fundamental proposition of historical materialism is that social existence determines social consciousness. Social existence is defined by the material life of society and, primarily, the productive activity of humans, along with the economic relations generated in the production process. Social consciousness refers to the intellectual life of humans, the ideas, judgments, and theories that guide them in their practical activity.

Historical materialism is often included in theories and philosophies of suspicion. These theories maintain that to understand the behavior of an individual or a social group, it is not adequate to accept the explanation that the person or group gives of themselves. This explanation is not objective but mediated by individual or group interests.

Historical Materialism After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it seemed that Marx's prophecy regarding the end of prehistory, which would come with the end of the capitalist mode of production and the establishment of a socialist society followed by a communist one, had also fallen. The bourgeois mode of production has not only survived its internal contradictions but appears healthier than ever. Communist regimes that could have served as alternative economic models have become extinct or are endangered.

The Relevance of Marx's Philosophy Today

• What happens to Marxist philosophy?
• Can we declare it obsolete and outdated?
• Did the communist revolutions truly capture Marx's theory?
• Is Marx's thought responsible for the red tape and lack of freedom in communist countries?

If we look at the more human aspects of Marx's philosophy, his desire to end the exploitation of man by man, to overcome the power characteristic of capitalist society, to rationally clarify our social consciousness, and to remove the ideological blinders that prevent us from understanding the historical, material, and economic roots of many of society's ills, then we cannot deny the validity and relevance of Marx's ideas.

Following Julio Quesada in his book Another History of Philosophy, we can affirm that we live in a technically globalized world, but one submerged in vast inequalities: one-third of humanity lives in abundance while the rest survive in misery. We could also cite the work of contemporary thinkers like Adolfo Sanchez, who recently published The Value of Socialism, which highlights the emancipatory role of Marxist philosophy. Philosopher Peter Singer's work, such as Rethinking Life and Death and The Ethics of What We Eat, retains the core features of classic socialist thought while adapting it to our current situation.