Abstract:

Historical materialism, as a new worldview to understand the world, is grounded in the social reality of the Industrial Revolution. While the Industrial Revolution provides four contextual dimensions for the actualization of historical materialism, it also introduces new task of transcending the perspective of the Industrial Revolution since under the dominance of capital logic, the Industrial Revolution has become a technological means for capital to exploit labor. By examining the interactive relationship between the Industrial Revolution and historical materialism, Marx provides us with a critical starting point to critically examine modern capital. On this basis, Marx proposes three key critical themes in The Capital, transforming historical materialism from a theoretical framework for interpreting history into an actual vision of critiquing capitalist society and achieving human liberation. The perspective of the Industrial Revolution establishes an essential connection between the study of The Capital and the actualization of historical materialism, leading to the conclusion that in future society, the Industrial Revolution will no longer serve as a technological reinforcement of the logic of capital. Instead, it will become a technological guarantee of the free and comprehensive development of individuals and the establishment of a social union based on the reconstruction of individual ownership, and it will be integrated into the actualization perspective of historical materialism. Therefore, historical materialism is no longer an abstract or general philosophy of history after it has acquired its highly practical and concrete content through the study of the Industrial Revolution.

Key words: Industrial Revolution, historical materialism, actualization, The Capital, philosophy of economy