Grünberg’s historical materialism forbade predicting socialism’s detailed future structure

Evidence

It is found that the driving pressure of the material interests which are systematically at work in economic life, and their collision one with another, produce a regular progression from lesser to greater perfection. And just as, from the point of view of the materialist conception of history, every single expression of the life of society is a reflection of the current form of economic life, so, equally, all historyexcept in primitive conditionsappears to be a series of class struggles. The materialist conception of history considers itself capable of recognizing and demonstrating that socialism is the goal of human development under concrete historical conditionsbut no more than that. How future socialist society will be structured in detail, and how it will function, lies outside the methodological scope of Marxist research and explanation, since it would otherwise lose touch with reality and lose itself in prophecies and utopian fantasies. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 94

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the methodological boundary Grünberg drew around Marxist science: historical prediction yes, utopian blueprint no.
• XREF: connects to: Marx’s own theory is historically conditioned and will be negated; Marxist theory itself is a product of historical contradictions and will disappear with them — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1439; Marx’s own theory anticipated its eventual negation as historical ideology (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Marx’s own theory is historically conditioned and will be negated #expands (0.80)
• Marxist theory itself is a product of historical contradictions and will disappear with them #expands (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1439
• Marx’s own theory anticipated its eventual negation as historical ideology #expands (0.78)