ResearchBib Share Your Research, Maximize Your Social Impacts
Sign for Notice Everyday Sign up >> Login

Marx’s Historical Materialism and the Notion of Praxis

Journal: Efil Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi (Vol.5, No. 1)

Publication Date:

Authors : ;

Page : 26-37

Keywords : Historical Materialism; Determinism; Praxis; Free will; Unintended Consequences;

Source : Downloadexternal Find it from : Google Scholarexternal

Abstract

The present paper examines Karl Marx's famous conception of “historical materialism,” in his A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Marx, 1970, p. 19-23), and focusses on the criticism that it has deterministic, both economically and technologically, and therefore it omits the role of human agency and free will. This paper aims at evaluating this criticism in closer detail, and showing that it is not founded. By considering two types of determinism, and the issue of human intentional behavior and its relation to history, it is shown that the allegation that historical materialism ignores the importance of conscious human conduct or praxis is untenable.

Last modified: 2022-03-24 18:22:12