Reflection And Reconstruction

This paper will try to give a systematic exposition and analysis for Anderson's theory of historical materialism.First, the strategy of transition from capitalism to socialism has always been a real anxiety for Anderson. In his view, this will require us to consider about how to overcome the long-lasting flexible structure of the bourgeois state:For what ends,in the names of what values and ideals, could a social movement be imaginably inspired to struggle against the dominion of advanced capital in the world today? For Anderson, historical materialism has to give answers to these questions.Secondly, Anderson advocated understanding the theory of historical materialism on the double dimension of the history and structure, and having a historic clarity and analysis in the specific cultural traditions and ideology of the political situation in the context of past,present and future. This is important for us to correctly understand the fundamental situation of contemporary capitalism, and to explore the future of the socialist road, and radiated the great significance of Marxist revolutionary forces.Third, Essentially, in Anderson's view, the nature of the relationships between structure and subject in human history and society .Now, the enigma of the respective status and position of these two was not a marginal or local area of uncertainty in Marxist theory. Indeed, it has always constituted one of the most central and fundamental problems of historical materialism as an account of the development of human civilization."We can see this immediately if we reflect on the permanent oscillation, the potential disjuncture in Marx's own writings between his ascription of the primary motor of historical change to the contradiction between the forces of production and the relations of production, on theone hand......and to the class struggle, on the other hand......the first refers essentially toa structural, The second refers to the subjective forces contending and colliding for mastery over social forms and historical processes." ? How are these two distinct types of causality, or principles of explanation, to be articulated in the theory of historical materialism? In Anderson's view, one of the main tasks of historical materialism is to avoid economism on the one side, voluntarism on the other.Fourth, In Anderson's view, it is nevertheless necessary to recall one of the basic axioms of historical materialism: that secular struggle between classes is ultimately resolved at the political-not at the economic or cultural-level of society. In other words, it is the construction and destruction of States which seal the basic shifts in the relations of production, so long as classes subsist. The abolition of the state altogether remains, a century later, one of the goals of revolutionary socialism. But the supreme significance accorded to its final disappearance, testifies to all the weight of its prior presence in history. So a 'history from above'-of the intricate machinery of class domination is thus no less essential than a 'history from below': indeed, without it the latter in the end becomes one-sided.Fifth, for Aderson,what is distinctive about the historical materialism that it in principle represents, is that it includes, indivisibly and unremittingly, self-criticism. That is, Marxism is a theory of history that lays claim, at the same stroke, to provide a history of the theory. Not merely as 'an ideal state of affairs', but as borne by the 'real movement of things'. This conception involved no element of complacent positivity—as if truth were henceforward guaranteed by time, Being by Becoming, their doctrine immune from error by mere immersion in change. He argued that "any further development of historical materialism would not only have to re-examine, tranquilly and firmly, the heritage of the classical thinkers, from Marx and Engels through to Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky, seeking to identify, criticize and resolve their characteristic omissions orconfusions......involve a reconsideration of the whole statute and significance of the past,in a system of thought geared overwhelmingly, at a day-to-day level, to the present or future."Reflected in the above-mentioned aspects, is the theoretical connotation of "inherent tension" of historical materialism, which makes historical materialism to be self-introspection and self-correction in accordance with the historical reality at any time. But Anderson admitted that the goal of correct grasp of the "inherent tension" is far from being achieved, even with a slight incaution will be caught in a one-sided situation. Anderson's research provided a good perspective for us to completely and accurately grasp the spirit and essence of historical materialism.