Mechanical causality cannot account for qualitative change or historical novelty.

Evidence

The problem of the “origins” of Marx’s thought has not been properly considered: a detailed study of his philosophical culture (and of the general philosophical environment in which he was formed directly and indirectly) is certainly necessary, but only as the premiss for a far more important study, that of his own “original” philosophy, which cannot be exhausted by study of a few “sources” or his personal “culture”. It is necessary, first of all, to take account of his creative and constructive activity. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1378 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Prediction of historical events is a practical act, not a scientific act of knowledge.; Society’s development cannot be explained by physical laws of quantity.; A thinker’s sources cannot explain the originality of their thought — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1378 (+9 more)

Related

• A thinker’s sources cannot explain the originality of their thought (similarity 0.82)
• Historical materialism requires no metaphysical-materialist foundation (similarity 0.82)
• Scientific reason is the methodology of a pre-given historical reality. (similarity 0.81)
• Social context shaped which mechanical ideas seemed plausible, not their content (similarity 0.81)
• Mechanical determinism makes people believe history moves without them. (similarity 0.80)
• Scientific theories are superstructures explained by history, not causes of it. (similarity 0.79)
• A thinker’s own thought must be separated from earlier material that only stimulated it (similarity 0.79)
• Marx’s later development changed how production determines, not whether it does (similarity 0.79)
• Tracing a thinker’s sources can wrongly deny their originality (similarity 0.78)
• Historical specificity, not mere materialism, defines Marx’s theory of culture (similarity 0.78)
• Critical consciousness without a material base cannot change society (similarity 0.78)
• Marx overemphasized economics while neglecting power and technical detail (similarity 0.78)
• Historical materialism is fundamentally historicist, not metaphysical (similarity 0.78)
• Historical novelty is generated from the contradictions of a specific situation, not from freedom. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Society’s development cannot be explained by physical laws of quantity. #corroborates (0.88)
• Mechanical determinism makes people believe history moves without them. #expands (0.82)
• A thinker’s sources cannot explain the originality of their thought #corroborates (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1378
• The mediaeval mind lacked a conception of history as cause and effect #corroborates (0.72) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 82