Marx's Historical Materialism: Class Struggle & Revolution

Marx's Historical Materialism

According to Marxist doctrine, scientific and philosophical theories must be within the field of praxis (practice). Marx claims that it is high time that philosophers no longer simply observe the world but engage in transforming it. Consequently, he tried to develop his theory of knowledge. This should not be considered as such in a strict sense, not to be an epistemology on its slopes. Instead, it gathers conceptual elements for a Marxist critique of ideology, conceived as systematic ways to create false consciousness of reality.

Marx believed that the knowledge that every human being has of social and historical reality is determined by their economic status. This led Marx to affirm that it is reality that determines consciousness, not vice versa. Thus, it is clear that consciousness is determined by social and economic structures historically and is not autonomous. In other words, the economic structure of society determines the other social, political, and cultural structures, and these constitute the ideological superstructure.

Marx's Division of Ideology

Marx divided ideology into several well-defined parts:

• The Real Foundation: This is based on the diverse set of productive relations, upon which a legal and political superstructure rises, and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.
• Components of Ideology: Ideology is composed of religion, the state, philosophy, the economy, and social organization.

Given the productive relations, the abolition of ideology is related to the disappearance of economic alienation. When alienation disappears, the reflection of the economic structure will be a true reflection. On the other hand, ideology also plays several roles: it distorts reality, unites social structures, and serves the ruling class to exercise their subjugation.

Historical Materialism: A Tool for Social Analysis

To justify the concept of ideology, Marx created a powerful tool for the analysis of social and economic reality that tries to provide an overview of the historical development of mankind. This is called historical materialism and can be characterized as a scientific theory about the formation of society.

Key Concepts of Historical Materialism

Historical materialism holds two main concepts:

1. The class struggle as the motor of history.
2. The labor movement as a radical expression of class struggle.

Marx argued that the proletariat revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat will abolish classes and, consequently, capitalism, leading to the establishment of an ideal communist society.