Sean Sayers

Department of Philosophy, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

ABSTRACT

Marxism involves a much darker and more complex philosophy of progress than is often thought. According to it, historical development is a contradictory process that takes place through the action of negative as well positive forces. These ideas are traced in accounts by Marx and Engels of the development of capitalism, and discussed critically with particular focus on Marx’s descriptions of the British rule in India. The charges that Marx’s concept of progress ignores environmental issues, that it is eurocentric, and that it implies a unilinear theory of history are discussed.

KEYWORDS Marx; Engels; progress; historical materialism; orientalism