Blackwell Reference Online

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M etaphysics, philosophy of history, philosophy of social science The theory about human society and history proposed by Marx and Engels and developed by their followers. It is a model for historical explanation , based on dialectical materialism . A systematic exposition of this theory is not provided by its founders, but a framework is offered by Marx in A Preface to The Critique of Political Economy (1859). The theory holds that social being determines social consciousness. Human history is a developmental process of labor. The forces of production , by which humans obtain the material means of existence, are the real foundation of history. Humans, who enter into the relations of production in labor, are divided into different economical classes according to their place in these relations. The forces of production and the relations of production form the economical structure of a society, which determine the superstructure , including the social and political superstructure and the ideological superstructure. To understand features of the superstructure such as religion, philosophy, literature, or law, we must look to the productive or economic structure of society. When the forces of production develop to a certain extent, they come into conflict with the existing relations of production, and the latter become a fetter constraining the further development of the former. ... log in or subscribe to read full text