The Marxian Ambiguity: An Attempt at a Solution. A Non-Marxian Theory of Socio-Economic Formation (Model I)

Abstract

Of the two interpretations of historical materialism, neither the nomological nor the praxistic (see above Chapter 3) seems to be a satisfactory one. The former ignores entirely the role of the (antagonistic) class struggle interpreting it as the means of realization of the regularities working outside human actions. The latter, in turn, abandons what seems to be the utmost contribution of historical materialism to social sciences, namely, the idea of socio-economic formation whose structure and motion undergo objective laws. The cognitive content of the question how to solve the Marxian ambiguity is, then, the following: how to combine the idea of class struggle with that of socio-economic formation being in an at least rough agreement with historical facts.