The Marxist Conception of History III

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III. MARX'S LEVELS OF GENERALITY

Bertell Ollman identifies seven levels of abstraction from the most unique to the most general, however, because Marx himself moves from the most abstract to the concrete¹, I prefer to reverse the order – doing this, furthermore, highlights the way in which what is learned at the higher levels of abstraction can be brought to bear upon the lower ones. Ollman also includes two levels which we can omit for the purposes of this essay: [1] the level of the animal world which brings into focus everything we have in common with the animal world and [2] the level of generality “which brings into focus our qualities as material parts of nature.” (Ollman 56) With these changes in mind, Ollman's five remaining levels abstraction are [1] human society, [2] class society, [3] capitalist society as such, [4] contemporary capitalist society and [5] and “whatever is unique about a person or situation”. (55-56)

The Marxist Conception of History II

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II. HOW NOT TO THINK ABOUT HISTORY (Part B)

I started with a parody of some of the cruder religious conceptions of history because it contains in their original forms many of the errors that supposedly secular theorists of history develop – the same theorists who are often so smugly certain of their enlightenment but whose anti-clericalism and scorn of religious obscurantism often only highlights their own fetishes.

The Marxist Conception of History I

I. HOW NOT TO THINK ABOUT HISTORY (Part A)

Since this essay is about history, I thought I'd begin with the very first historical act: the creation of Adam by God.