In the view of the theory of historical resultant force, the historical process is certainly a progressive process guided by its laws, from simple to complex and from low level to high level, but the generation of laws and its progress in the historical process can not be separated from the “entanglement” of people’s purpose and will for a moment. It is precisely because of this “entanglement” that historical progress often has to open its way for itself through the blindness of the historical process like a natural state, the unexpected result of the historical result, and the faltering in which progress and cost are intertwined. The subtle analysis and profound exposition of the complexity of historical progress is not only Engels’ outstanding contribution to historical materialism in his later years, but also the unique explanatory function of the theory of historical resultant force.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Liu Tingting

From:Studies on Marxist Theory.2023.No.8.