Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism

Evidence

Marx’s “materialism” adds to this premise at least one other requirement: that the relationship must be thought within determinate historical conditions. It must be made historically specific . It is this second requirement which distinguishes a historical materialist theory of human society and culture from, say, a materialism grounded in the simple fact of man’s physical nature (a “vulgar,” or as Marx calls it, an undialectical materialism) or one which gives the determining instance to technological development alone. What Karl Korsch, among others, has called “the principle of historical specificity” in Marx’s materialism is clearly enunciated in The German Ideology (where Marx’s theory becomes, for the first time, fully “historical”) and afterward in his mature work. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881

Categorization

• DEFINE: Crystallizes the principle of historical specificity—a core Hall concept—as what separates Marxism from crude technological or biological materialism.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881
• XREF: connects to: Historical materialism is a break with rather than an inversion of Hegel.; Marx reaffirmed economic determination was universal across all epochs including feudal and antique ones; Historical specificity, not mere materialism, defines Marx’s theory of culture (+24 more)

Broader Connections

• Marx held that production methods determine an epoch’s culture #qualifies (0.70) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2845
• Marx overemphasized economics while neglecting power and technical detail #contradicts (0.50) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2847