The Materialist Interpretation of History

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Robert L. Heilbroner
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4172-4177
Author(s):  
Abdul Malek

The denial of the existence of contradiction is at the root of all idealism in epistemology and the cause for alienations.  This alienation has become a hindrance for the understanding of the nature and the historical evolution mathematics itself and its role as an instrument in the enquiry of the physical universe (1). A dialectical materialist approach incorporating  the role of the contradiction of the unity of the opposites, chance and necessity etc., can provide a proper understanding of the historical evolution of mathematics and  may ameliorate  the negative effect of the alienation in modern theoretical physics and cosmology. The dialectical view also offers a more plausible materialist interpretation of the bewildering wave-particle duality in quantum dynamics (2).


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey V. Rezaev ◽  
Dmitrii M. Zhikharevich ◽  
Pavel P. Lisitsyn

The paper argues that a materialistic understanding of history as Marx’s sociological research program has effectively been implemented in the comparative analysis of bourgeois societies. Both qualitative/case-oriented and quantitative/variable-oriented strategies of comparison were employed by Marx in his scholarship. The authors see the crucial dimension of the classical status of Marx in his engagement with historical comparisons – an analytical tendency he shares with Weber and, to some extent, Durkheim. A short historical exposition tracing the early reception of Marx in sociology continues with the most important contemporary criticisms of Marx’s comparative-historical analysis, focusing on the issues of Asiatic mode of production, the nature of European feudalism and the problem of capitalist rationality.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrado Poli

This essay: (a) criticizes the current political strategy of most environmentalists, radical and moderate; (b) proposes the intellectual terms of a political alliance that could overcome the traditional political separation between conservative and progressive when dealing with the environmental question; (c) reports on a case; (d) suggests how to shift from a non-political situation into political and institutional action. My goal is to create a political-cultural background which brings environmentalists together with people inspired by new economy, cultural creatives, wikinomics, organic farming, cultural and immaterial consumption models, etc. The alliance will be grounded on a new covenant between humans and nature, and on a non-materialist interpretation of politics. Therefore, I call for new research that helps to radically change the political and the production system, not because the system is unjust in the usually- considered terms, but because it endangers nature and society. By changing the order of priority I do not deny the importance of social justice and individual freedom in everyday life. Rather, I think that meaningful political reforms, and consistent political platforms, will be possible only if we put the relation between humans and nature first in the political debate.


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