The universal-proletariat claim persisted as non-empirical doctrine in Marxism

Evidence

However, it is still fair to say that at base, that is at its epistemological substratum, Marxism is a Western construction—a conceptualization of human affairs and historical development that is emergent from the historical experiences of European peoples mediated, in turn, through their civilization, their social orders, and their cultures. Certainly its philosophical origins are indisputably Western. But the same must be said of its analytical presumptions, its historical perspectives, its points of view. This most natural consequence though has assumed a rather ominous significance since European Marxists have presumed more frequently than not that their project is identical with world-historical development. Confounded it would seem by the cultural zeal that accompanies ascendant civilizations, they have mistaken for universal verities the structures and social dynamics retrieved from their own distant and more immediate pasts. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 114 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Marx reaffirmed economic determination was universal across all epochs including feudal and antique ones; Marxism’s universalism attracted Black radicals yet proved insufficiently global; Marxism’s universalism masked its blindness to non-European freedom struggles (+11 more)

Related

• European Marxists mistook their localized structures for universal historical truths (similarity 0.90)
• Marxism’s entire epistemological foundation is a Western European construction (similarity 0.89)
• Marxism’s universalism masked its blindness to non-European freedom struggles (similarity 0.89)
• Marx denied that his account of capitalism’s genesis applied universally (similarity 0.87)
• Marx’s own theory anticipated its eventual negation as historical ideology (similarity 0.86)
• Marxism is a Western construction rooted in European historical experience (similarity 0.86)
• Marxist theory’s core model is Eurocentric, not just Marx personally (similarity 0.85)
• Marxism’s apparent universalism proved inadequate for Black radicals tied to peasant and colonial bases. (similarity 0.85)
• Postmodernism’s pessimism was a local European crisis wrongly universalized (similarity 0.84)
• Marx’s novelty lay in siding with the proletariat, not in analyzing exploitation (similarity 0.83)
• Marxism failed Black radicals because it misconprehended peasant and colonial liberation struggles (similarity 0.83)
• Marx disavowed reading Western European capitalist development as a universal path (similarity 0.82)
• Eurocentric Marxism could not grasp Third World revolutionary forces (similarity 0.82)
• Marx disavowed any universal historical theory of capitalist development (similarity 0.82)
• European universalism presumed all societies share Europe’s underlying structure (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Marxism’s universalism masked its blindness to non-European freedom struggles #expands (0.60)
• European Marxists mistook their localized structures for universal historical truths #corroborates (0.55) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 114
• Marxism’s universalism attracted Black radicals yet proved insufficiently global #qualifies (0.50)