Law And Functional Explanation In Historical Materialism

If there is a law of the history as there is of Nature ? The implication of "law" have changed. It not necessarily signifies inevitability. Notions of law of history has undergone a change from metaphysical presumption to critical denial. Under a tolerant notion of law, the faith of laws of inevitability is a needed working-hypothesis. From a methodological aspect, historical materialism is against any metaphysical, general laws of history, as is conveyed in the constitution of historical materialism. And as a try to build a historical science and a guide to social revolution, historical materialism did formulated a kind of law within the scope of empirical sciences. The theory of "composition of forces" only partly explained the regularity of history. To testify the basic propositions of historical materialism and to set forth the intrinsic nature of history to be accord with humanism, we must rely on teleology and functional explanation. The reconstructed functional explanation does not violate logical principles. It can be soundly defended. It has gained a legal status in biology. In historical materialism, functional explanation is indispensable and inspiring, although it would finally be proved false. We must bear it in mind that teleology is not a metaphysical premise and functional explanation is more defeatable than causal explanation.