Core Purpose of the Video
- Introduces historical materialism as explained in Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist textbooks.
- Distinguishes it from dialectical materialism and shows how it applies specifically to the study of human society.
- Frames it as a practical guide for workers to understand and change society.
Dialectical vs. Historical Materialism
- Dialectical materialism: A universal philosophy that explains the relationship between matter and consciousness, governed by laws like quantity-to-quality change and negation of negation. Applies to all phenomena in the universe.
- Historical materialism: Application of dialectical materialism to human society. Concerned only with social life and development.
Key Concepts of Historical Materialism
- Social Being vs. Social Consciousness
- Social being: The material life of society (production, survival needs, economy).
- Social consciousness: The collective mental life (ideas, culture, beliefs).
- The material base (being) determines consciousness, but consciousness can also impact back.
- Economic Base and Superstructure
- Base = relations of production (who owns, who works, how production is organized).
- Superstructure = ideology, culture, institutions (art, religion, politics, state, etc.).
- The superstructure defends and reflects the base, but can also influence it dialectically.
- Productive Forces & Relations of Production
- Productive forces = workers + means of production (tools, resources, knowledge).
- Relations of production = ownership and organizational relationships in production.
- When relations no longer fit the productive forces → social crisis → revolution.
Historical Development
- Feudalism → Capitalism:
- Industrial revolution made feudal relations obsolete.
- Capitalist class emerged, gained class consciousness, overthrew feudal lords.
- Capitalism → Socialism (in progress):
- Capitalism socializes production (factories, global supply chains) but keeps private ownership.
- This contradiction (social labor vs. private ownership) creates instability and the “seed” of socialism.
Revolutionary Mission
- Workers must develop class consciousness (awareness of exploitation and their role in production).