Historical materialism

Historical materialism, also known as the economic interpretation of history, is a theory of philosophy. It has its roots in the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, two 19th-century thinkers. It states that human societies develop through the struggle of classes. In other words, he argues that all major developments and changes in our world are caused by changes in technology and the way we organize around those technologies. This term was first used by Karl Marx in his preface to the criticism of the political economy in his 1859 work "German Ideology". There, he wrote: 'My conception is based on development taking place in the economic field'. 

Characteristics of historical materialism: Historical materialism is a method of analysis and also a theory of history. There are several characteristics that make historical materialism unique compared to other philosophies or theories:It is an empirical theory: it is based largely on evidence of historical events, as well as on the facts of life today. It is not based on intuition or logic, as idealism does.

Historical materialism is the Marxist theory of history. It is based on the idea that the driving force of history is economic activity. The starting point for historical materialism is an analysis of how people make a living and how they exchange their work for money to live. The basic idea is that the whole story can be explained in terms of the economic basis. Which consists of the means of production, and how this affects the superstructure. Marx believed that economic activity was the main determinant in the configuration of human societies and institutions such as the State, religion and ideology. Historical materialism is a theory, but it can also be used as a tool to understand the world. It can be used to understand history, economy, politics and society. It is the application of scientific research to society and history. The goal of historical materialism is to understand how societies change and develop over time. How they first emerged, what factors led them to take rather than others (and why), how societies change according to these factors, as well as others that affect them now or may affect them in the future.

The discovery, in material production, of the true foundation of all life and development of society, made it possible to understand for the first time in history the great creative role of the popular masses, of the workers. The history of social development was for the first time understood as "the history of the producers of material goods themselves; the history of the working masses, which are the fundamental forces of the production process and perform the production of material goods, necessary for the existence of society. that historical science, if it is intended to be a true science, cannot further reduce the history of social development, to the acts of kings and military chiefs, to the acts of conquerors and avatars of states, but must, above all, deal with the history of producers of material goods, of the history of the working masses, of the history of the peoples" (History course).

Depending on the mode of production, the material life of society, a certain historical character of any social regime, political institutions, the way men think, their concepts, ideas and theories are formed. Social existence determines social consciousness. One cannot quite understand the essence of political institutions, ideas and theories, if one forgets the material basis of their origin: the economic order of society's life.

One cannot understand why some institutions and ideas are born at one time and others are born if they are separated from themselves and not from the modes of production. The forms of exploitation (slave, feudal, capitalist) have always depended on the division of society into classes: masters and slaves, lords and serfs, bourgeoisie and proletariat. The forms of social consciousness (political concepts, science, religion, &c.) also always depend, in the end, on relations of dominant production among men, and change radically with changes in the mode of production and economic regimes.

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