Historical Materialism and Supervenience

In: Philosophy of the social sciences: an international journal = Philosophie des sciences sociales, Band 35, Heft 4, S. 420-446

Abstract

In this article I put forth a new interpretation of historical materialism titled the supervenient interpretation. Drawing on the insights of analytical Marxism and utilizing the concept of supervenience, I advance two central claims. First, that Marx's synchronic materialism maintains that the superstructure supervenes naturally on the economic structure. Second, that diachronic materialism maintains that the relations of production supervene naturally on the forces of production. Taken together, these two theses help bring to the fore the central tenets of historical materialism. Furthermore, they help resolve what I call the problem of reductionismand the problem of verification.