{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181","title":"Marx and the Concept of Historical Time","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181","id":"cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181","uuid":"cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181","title":"Marx and the Concept of Historical Time","normalized_title":"marxandtheconceptofhistoricaltime","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"isbns":[],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":216,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Marx%20and%20the%20Concept%20of%20Historical%20Time","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/cfa147d3-494e-49cc-b356-7aceff50b181/search"},"page":{"printed_page":22,"pdf_page":26,"physical_index":26,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"5ceee8295c8190f4c4ad27b1d3cfa657600794d5c906832733215360b74e5700"},"chapter":"Marx and the Concept of Historical Time","content":"1.2 A Materialist Concept of History: The German Ideology\n\nWe now turn to The German Ideology. In ‘Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook’, the initial section wherein the contours of the materialist concept of history are outlined, Marx and Engels establish the ‘first premise of all human history’ through three postulates:\n\n(1) The first premise of all human history is…the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organisation of these individuals and their consequent relation to the rest of nature…\n\n(2) Humans can be distinguished from animals by consciousness, by religion or anything else you like. They themselves begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of life [ihre Lebensmittel zu produzieren], a step which is conditioned by their physical organisation. By producing their means of life humans are indirectly producing their material life…\n\n(3) The way in which humans produce their means of life depends first of all on the nature of the means of life they actually find in existence and have to reproduce. This mode of production must not be considered simply as being the reproduction of the physical existence of the individuals. Rather it is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part. As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. Thus what individuals are depends on the material conditions of their production.<sup>31</sup>\n\nThe German Ideology adds a distinct historical logic to the new materialism of the Theses. It also, as we will now consider, adds a distinct historical logic to the philosophical anthropology of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844<sup>32</sup> (hereafter 1844 Manuscripts) and the Excerpts from James Mill’s Elements of Political Economy.<sup>33</sup> The materialist concept of history in The German Ideology is predicated upon a materialist concept of anthropology: for\n\n<sup>31</sup> Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Die deutsche Ideologie (hereafter DI), in Marx and Engels, MEW, Band 3 (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1978) 20-1 (GI, 42). In addition to its colloquial meaning as victuals, Lebensmittel can be translated as ‘means of subsistence’, ‘means of existence’ and ‘means of life’. ‘Means of subsistence’ is the predominant and weakest choice, as it exclusively emphasises ‘the reproduction of the physical existence of…individuals’, a dimension in which Marx’s concept of ‘life [Leben] is necessarily grounded, but which it also profoundly expands.\n\n<sup>32</sup> See Karl Marx, The Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 [1844] (hereafter EPM), trans. Martin Mulligan (New York: International Publishers, 1964). The German edition cited in this thesis is Karl Marx, Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844 (hereafter OPM), in Marx and Engels, MEW, Band 40 (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1968).\n\n<sup>33</sup> See Karl Marx, Excerpts from James Mill’s Elements of Political Economy [1844] (hereafter JM), in Marx, Early Writings, 259-78. The German edition cited in this thesis is Karl Marx, Auszüge aus James Mills Buch Élémens d'économie politique (hereafter AJM), in Marx and Engels, MEW, Band 40 (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1968).\n\n22","previous_page":21,"next_page":23}