Characteristics of Historical Materialism

The historical materialism It is the philosophical theory that aims to explain the development of human society, establishing as its causes the productive activities of its members.

This current of thought is based on some theories of Marxist Communism; Previously, it was considered that the productive activities of the human being as well as their grouping in society were the product of free will; Marx states that productive activities are not carried out by the free will of the human being, but are necessary for the subsistence of society, so that the development of society is determined by the productive activities of its members.

The historical materialism conducts a study of human society, without being influenced by ideological theories or supposed ideals of human behavior. Based on concrete and real facts such as the material resources to which it could have access, as well as the technology to be able to take advantage of them, the scientific development of the period under study and the production systems available in a certain chapter of the story.

The main characteristics of historical materialism are:

• In this doctrine the economy is established as the basis of society: The economy is the set of relations that exist between the means of production and the human being, which he calls relations of property.
• The economy determines the values ​​and ideology of a society at a given moment in history: It is the ideology of the economically dominant class that controls society.
• It is the forces of production that drive the historical development of societies.
• All changes in society, the middle ages, the industrial revolution, slavery, liberalism, capitalism, socialism and Neoliberalism is made from changes in the economic models of society and they are independent of people and warlords.