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GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

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66 ETBIGS AND POLITICS ; <strong>THE</strong> MODERNS<br />

"makes his own history: he does not make it out of con*<br />

ditkms chosen by himself, but out of such as he finds close<br />

<strong>at</strong> hand." M<strong>at</strong>erial conditions, in other words, constitute<br />

the framework within the limits of which man's freedom<br />

oper<strong>at</strong>es.<br />

Th<strong>at</strong> Man's<br />

Determinist.<br />

Fundamental Theory is, nevertheless,<br />

But from the framework itself there is no<br />

escape. Although the process whereby m<strong>at</strong>ter influences<br />

mind and mind influences m<strong>at</strong>ter, is a two-way process,<br />

the ultim<strong>at</strong>e determiner is m<strong>at</strong>ter. Economic forces<br />

make society wh<strong>at</strong> it is and men wh<strong>at</strong> they are, and,<br />

although the institutions of society and die minds of<br />

men then proceed to gener<strong>at</strong>e a vitality of their own in<br />

virtue of which they enjoy a quasi-independence which<br />

give them the power to modify economic forces, this<br />

influence is only a secondary and deriv<strong>at</strong>ive cause of<br />

historical events. Human beings, in other words, affect<br />

circumstance by reason of their ideas, desires and wishes,<br />

which, on the basis of the instrumentalist view th<strong>at</strong><br />

knowledge is not passive contempl<strong>at</strong>ion but is essentially<br />

bound up with actionproduce effects upon m<strong>at</strong>ter. But<br />

these ideas, desires and wishes are not spontaneous, the<br />

products of independent thinking and desiring by freely<br />

functioning minds. They are the outcome of die legal and<br />

moral systems under which the individual lives, and the<br />

institutional nivH educ<strong>at</strong>ional training which he IWP received*<br />

They are, in a word, such as an individual, living in a<br />

community in such and such a stage ofsocial development,<br />

must inevitably have* Now legal and moral systems,<br />

political institutions and educ<strong>at</strong>ion are, as we have seen,<br />

themselves rel<strong>at</strong>ed to friMil conditioned by the particular<br />

phase of economic technique which <strong>at</strong> any given time<br />

happens to prevail. Thus the economic structure of society<br />

which is the result of the way in which men s<strong>at</strong>isfy their<br />

m<strong>at</strong>erial needs is, in the long run, the factor which determines<br />

all the others*<br />

So far, the Marxist answer to the question which we are

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