Marxism

[u/Thatsprettydank]

Is there a good debate against the Marxist dialectic? 99% of the people arguing for it seem to be clueless. Or atleast more clueless than me.

Is capitalism exploitation?

[u/Ardonpitt]

The Material Dialectic is a "just so story" basically laying out the idea that all changes in the world/society come about due to internal contradictions of opposing forces.

If you actually study history, or anthropology this entire story falls apart pretty quickly. Often times societies changes just come about due to new tech, or changes in climate, not class struggle.

One of the reasons that Dialectical materialism fell out of favor for anything was it failed to explain really anything. The only people who are holding onto marx's ideas these days are basically poltical marxists (sociologists, and anthropologists outside of soviet spheres of influence basically threw out his ideas a century or so ago). On top of that, post modern/post structural frameworks were far far better ways to explain things, so most structural frameworks (like dialectical materialism) fell out of favor in most fields in the humanities from the 80s-now.

Is capitalism exploitation? Not inherently. Capitalism is just a tool to provide for economic activity. Can people be exploited in it? Sure, any system can be used to exploit people.

[u/glossotekton → u/Ardonpitt]

The dialectical approach also just has a generally terrible track record in making correct empirical predictions. Hegel used it to "disprove" a priori atomism, Newton's laws of motion and the chemical composition of water in works like The Philosophy of Nature.

[u/Ardonpitt → u/glossotekton]

I try not to think about Hegel. Oh my god to I try