Every prior philosophy expressed social contradictions without consciously knowing them

Evidence

That the philosophy of praxis thinks of itself in a historicist manner, that is, as a transitory phase of philosophical thought, is not only implicit in its entire system, but is made quite explicit in the well-known thesis that historical development will at a certain point be characterised by the passage from the reign of necessity to the reign of freedom. 506 All hitherto existing philosophies (philosophical systems) have been manifestations of the intimate contradictions by which society is lacerated. But each philosophical system taken by itself has not been the conscious expression of these contradictions, since this expression could be provided only by the ensemble of systems in conflict with each other. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1435

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains historicism as the self-understanding that thought is a transitory phase, keyed to the necessity-to-freedom thesis.
• XREF: connects to: All ontology after Parmenides has been secretly idealist — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2278