Marx's Aufhebung of Philosophy and the Foundations of a Materialist Science of History

Abstract

The relation between theory and historical analysis is perhaps most often acknowledged, yet least precisely defined, element of Marx's project. Marx and Engels both wrote several letters insisting on tentative nature of their theoretical works and on need for continued study of history. Since, however, they never systematically and unambiguously defined exact purpose and place of historical studies in their larger project, debate over this relation seems to have been renewed every generation. The most recent round of this debate began with publication of Louis Althusser's works in mid-1960s. Althusser's Marxism focuses on synchronic structures and dialectical materialist philosophy and includes an attack on history and its study. This attack quickly led to several responses in defense of diachronic as a necessary element of Marx's historical-materialist project. In his Geschichte und Struktur Alfred Schmidt replied to Althusser by explaining historical content of Marx's structuralist categories. In performing this important task Schmidt concentrated on theoretical dimension, and although he alluded to relation between this and Marx's historical writings, he did not explain place and role of historical studies beyond its contribution to construction of categories. Insofar as he focused on this issue, E. P. Thompson's polemic against Althusser, The Poverty of Theory, complements Schmidt's analysis. Although Thompson convincingly shows need for continued historical study as means of making Marx's theory concrete, he does not derive this need from a systematic analysis of Marx's writings. He maintains, on contrary, that the time has gone by for this kind of textual exegesis.' In view of recent treatment of Marx's theory by poststructuralists or postmodernists, however, time for such a textual exegesis may have come again. The inadequate understanding of intentionally tentative character of Marx's theoretical works, of accompanying epistemological demand for historical analysis, of dialectical tension between theory and empirical analysis, and, therefore, of Marx's open-ended definition of historical knowledge