Marx’s later development changed how production determines, not whether it does
Evidence
No simple or reductive reflexivity of the superstructures is assumed here, though the thrust behind the many reformulations is consistent, and unmistakable. And perhaps it is worth stressing that, if Marx’s thought on the subject subsequently developed, what changed is how he came to understand determinacy by a mode of production, not whether it determined or not. When we leave the terrain of “determinations,” we desert, not just this or that stage in Marx’s thought, but his whole problematic. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 497
Categorization
- XREF: Challenges the common reading that Marx abandoned determinism; connects to the economy-in-the-last-instance debates in political theory. — connects to: Marx held that production methods determine an epoch’s culture — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2845; Economic change does not directly supply the content of capitalist ideas; Historical change alters how invariant productive elements combine, not the elements themselves. (+5 more)
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 497
Broader Connections
- Marx’s concept of historical specificity deepened between German Ideology and Capital
#expands(0.60) - Mature Marx employed structural rather than sequential causality
#expands(0.55) - Historical specificity, not mere materialism, defines Marx’s theory of culture
#expands(0.55) - Marx held that production methods determine an epoch’s culture
#qualifies(0.50) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2845 - Economic change does not directly supply the content of capitalist ideas
#complicates(0.50) - Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism
#qualifies(0.50) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881 - Capitalist production relations are reproduced socially and ideologically, not just economically
#expands(0.50) - Historical change alters how invariant productive elements combine, not the elements themselves.
#contradicts(0.30)