Marx and Progress. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sayers, Sean
• Is Part Of: International critical thought. Volume 10:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 18
• Page End: 33
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Marx -- Engels -- progress -- historical materialism -- orientalism; Critical thinking -- Periodicals; Current events -- Periodicals; 153.4205
• DOI: 10.1080/21598282.2020.1727760
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2159-8282

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Marxism involves a much darker and more complex philosophy of progress than is often thought. According to it, historical development is a contradictory process that takes place through the action of negative as well positive forces. These ideas are traced in accounts by Marx and Engels of the development of capitalism, and discussed critically with particular focus on Marx's descriptions of the British rule in India. The charges that Marx's concept of progress ignores environmental issues, that it is eurocentric, and that it implies a unilinear theory of history are discussed.