The theory springs from Hegel, Marx replaced Hegel’s idealism with materialism,
it was no longer idealist theory of history, but materialist theory of history. Not based on ideas but reality and material objects. Humanity moves through history driven by a desire to fulfil material and economic needs. Marx professed four epochs in history until we would reach communism, which is what Marx put in place of “Geist.” According to Hegel “Geist” could be reached through a series of thesis, antithesis and derived from them a synthesis. This synthesis would in-turn have an anti-thesis and the process would repeat, until “Geist” (absolute spirit) was reached. For Marx, the epochs of history were moved through by this process, with 2 different classes reflecting a thesis and an antithesis. History began with Hunter gatherers followed by the tribal system, feudalism, and the pen–ultimate epoch capitalism (which we now live in) before communism was to be reached.
The epoch of Hunter Gatherers was that of primitive man. People lived in caves and hunted with simple weapons like spears. People had fulfilled their basic needs, food and shelter. Life was very tough, having to do everything as individuals; this gave rise to the tribal epoch. One tribe could be very skilled fishermen while another could be skilled masons (division of labour). They would engage in trade and thus make life easier. Feudalism followed this, one rich owner had a lot of land that needed to be farmed and worked. He would employ serfs (peasants) to work the land and in return they would receive a meagre wage and accommodation. This wage would have been food and water and other very basic necessities. Capitalism was the next epoch. Capitalism is about profit and increasing profit. Most of the means of production are privately owned and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets. People work for a wage, and with this wage they can purchase items for consumption. In capitalism whatever is needed more at the time is worth more (supply and demand). Communism, the final epoch is a system of political and economic organization in which property is owned by the state and all citizens share in the common wealth, more or less according to their need.
Karl Marx successfully predicted Capitalism and his materialist theory of history seems to work. It is almost poetic in its simplicity. The theory flows as if he had not created it, it was the truth and had always been. But there are limitations to his theory.
Historical Materialism is a body of knowledge based on observation. An epoch will develop into a new one, thesis, antithesis and then synthesis, followed by a new epoch. This idea did not come from nowhere; Marx observed what had happened in the past and applied it to the future. This is a law in his theory, epochs will develop. Because it had happened before, does not mean it will happen again. There is a tendency for history to develop, but no guarantee as Marx pre-supposes. By Hegel’s and Marx’s own rationale they must contradict themselves, there is an antithesis to every thesis. There will always be an antithesis, so Communism would have an antithesis supported by a class, resulting in a never ending cycle of thesis antithesis and synthesis. Real history did not develop through the epochs. But rather, historical periods succeeded, intersected and went back on themselves throughout actual history. In Egypt there was a feudal system BC, while other places were still in the tribal epoch. Europe only reached (relatively nearby) Egypt’s ancient stage of development by the 16th and 17th century AD. So history is not as defined or simple as Marx professed. Throughout history there are a multitude of reasons why a certain development takes place, not two reasons or thesis then a synthesis developed from these two reasons or thesis. “Death is death, but there are many diseases to die of”
Chaos theory is a strong contrast to Historical materialism, the unpredictability of a “chaotic” system, is due to the outcome being sensitive to minute, immeasurable variations in the initial conditions, that may seem highly irrelevant. Example is “the butterfly affect”: the idea that a mere flap of its wings can be the difference between a hurricane and a normal day. This can be applied to history, and the process of development may have been caused by anything. Capitalism may have taken hold because of a fight between two friends, leading to a chain of events that caused Capitalism. This theory seems far lees likely than Marx’s theory, but is no less valid.
Libertarianism contests Marx, a theory of freedom despite what has happened in the past. Given the present state of affairs and ourselves as we are, we can choose to decide differently than we do - act so as to make the future different. Libertarians assert the freedom of will and go directly against Marx’s theory, which is deterministic. Contemporary libertarians cite quantum physics and “the principle of uncertainty” as evidence that determinism is false.
Marx and Engels theory of history was the basis for their whole work, and has therefore changed the face of the world forever. The Soviet Union was under communism for many years, from until 1991, and this republic as played a major role in the history of the world. Arguably the main Country in ending Hitler and Nazi Germany, after their heroics at Stalingrad. Whatever flaws can be seen in Marx’s philosophy, it was enough to scare the US into a war. The cold war was the US fearingthe Marxis Soviet Union, and suspecting that they had much power. Enough power to threaten the mighty USA. However, Communism failed in the Soviet Union, this could be down to the basic flaws in the theory. Historical Materilamsm was the basis and was not 100%. But the Soviet Union did not engage capitalism. They skipped an epoch and went straight from feudal to communism. Its could be argued that this is why it failed.
The Communist state was a Utopia, destined to fail by defintion. Utopia comes from the greek word ou, meaning “not” and topos, meaning “a place”. “Not a place”. An alluring idealogy and theory of history, yet not workable in reality.
