Karl Marx and His Method

Karl Marx and His Method of Historical Materialism

In discussing Karl Marx's basic tenets in the inherent presence of class conflict in a modern, capitalist society, it is inevitable that his method of historical materialism be included to explain how this concept of class conflict emerges. Prior to presenting his thesis of the emergence of class conflict and oppression in a capitalist society, Marx initially discusses how historical materialism made possible his analysis of human societies over time.

In his discourse, historical materialism for Marx is elucidated as follows:

At most its place can be taken by a synthesis of the most general results, that may be abstracted from observation of the historical development of men. Separated from actual history, these abstractions have in themselves no value whatsoever. They can only serve to facilitate the ordering of historical materials, to indicate the sequence of its separate layers. But they by no means provide a recipe or scheme, as does philosophy, for neatly trimming the epochs of history.

This passage demonstrates historical materialism as the best method to understand social change and modernity in society, wherein both the social and human elements of history and the economic system of society are combined to create a thorough understanding of how being determines consciousness. That is, in the context of Marx's critical analysis of history, historical materialism determines the emergence and development of conflict in society, where the experience of oppression is based on reality.

It is evident that this passage makes historical materialism synonymous with the concept of social experience: human history is influenced by the social changes and development that emerge in society. Oppression between the bourgeoisie or elite and proletariat or working classes illustrate the importance of historical materialism in determining the emergence of this conflict. Class conflict emerged because the elite class own the means to produce resources that generate economic prosperity, and because they have control over the means of production, the working class are left with nothing but wages, which actually does not cover the cost of labor that the workers have used as input for the production of the commodity. It is through this reality of poverty that conflict between the two classes emerges, leading to the continuous control of the elite over the working class.

Historical materialism can also be understood for what it is not -- that is, by comparing it with other methods adopted by philosophers and social scientists to explain significant phenomena that occur in the modern capitalist society. Historical materialism is very much different from the idealist perspective of analyzing culture, history, and society. In the idealist perspective, all that humans feel and experience are not products of sensory experience, but of the mind itself, where all human experiences are generated from the mind. Thus, in the idealist perspective, consciousness about one's status in life and perceived expression of oppression exist and develops only in the mind of the individual. Thus, one only feels oppressed if s/he thinks that s/he is indeed oppressed.

As Marx discusses in his discourse, materialism is distinguished from idealism in that the latter chronicles human history and social experience at a particular period in time, a deterministic approach to explaining social change. In materialism, what instead occurs is a continuous process of social change. Modernism is considered as a product of the previous economic societies of humanity in the historical materialist perspective; idealism, meanwhile, considers modernism as a unique event in society, exclusive of the previous events that surrounded human history through the years.

Evidently, these discourses about materialism and idealism intend to understand how modernism developed in the 19th century, and for centuries to come. Capitalism gave birth to modernism, and both materialism and idealism are approaches that help explains the development of modernism in human society.

In the idealist perspective, modernism developed through intellectual development, wherein humans are able to transcend the capabilities of their thinking, elevating their minds to a higher level. Thus, this elevation goes beyond the present nature and condition of human society, attributing progress as a product of human intelligence, without the interference of society and the social conditions in which humans live in.