On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 06:04 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I could not disagree more. Marxism is based on recognition of class > struggle. All outcomes are the result of opposing forces, and not only > therefore not functional but in fact unpredictable except to the extent a > preponderance of power, numbers, force of arms or resources and > organization are clearly on one side or the other. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my original post. I do in fact consider class struggle to be essential for a Marxist understanding of social evolution. In another post ( https://medium.com/@jimfarmelant/how-can-the-evolution-of-social-and-political-institutions-be-related-to-the-darwinism-theory-9fab4a8ca60b ) I draw upon writers like Alan Carling and Paul Nolan to contend that historical materialism can be understood in selectionist terms. There I wrote: > > In Carling’s version of historical materialism, different modes of > production are seen as existing in competition both with one another and > with nature. The system that can foster the development of the forces of > production at a given historical moment is the one likely to prevail in > the struggle for survival between rival regimes of production. In this > scheme, class struggle figures into it because it is class struggles that > generate new variations in the social relations of production, upon which > social selection can operate. Carling’s version of historical materialism > is obviously closely patterned after Darwin’s theory of evolution through > natural selection. > > And we can relate functionalist explanations with selectionist explanations in the following way. In historical materialism, functionalist explanations describe how social practices and institutions contribute to the reproduction of a given mode of production. Legal, political, and cultural institutions may appear “functional” because they stabilize property relations, organize labor, and facilitate surplus extraction, thereby supporting the existing social and economic order. However, these functional accounts do not explain why particular forms arise or persist; they describe effects retrospectively, showing how certain practices fit within the broader material structure. Selectionist explanations, grounded in historical processes, provide that mechanism. New social relations of production emerge through the conflicts, crises, and innovations generated by *class struggle* , as subordinate classes resist exploitation and dominant classes seek to secure surplus and maintain control. Among these competing practices and institutional arrangements, those that effectively stabilize the mode of production and reproduce class dominance are more likely to persist. Functional effects, in this sense, act as criteria for selection: they explain why certain practices endure, but their survival depends on the contingent dynamics of struggle and adaptation. Thus, historical materialism integrates functionalist insight with a selectionist logic rooted in class conflict, showing that the persistence of social institutions is neither inevitable nor teleological, but historically contingent. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39319): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39319 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116300941/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
