ABSTRACT
The development of the mode of production is thought to express a Necessary Force of History, with Marxism as the key to understanding this Force. Human life is seen as a compulsive teleological growth towards the fulfillment of the human species, inevitably leading to a golden future in which all alienation and oppression are eliminated. Positivist Marxism is also deeply flawed because of the essential differences between human beings and physical objects, and therefore between social theory and natural science. Human consciousness is thus not a consequence of the mode of production but part of it. Of course our beliefs, desires, and values should not be thought of as separate from and determining concrete social relations. Just as Karl Marx thought gender identity would diminish in importance with the growth of capitalism, so he felt that differences of ethnicity, nationality, race, and religion would also become politically unimportant.
