Karl Marx, Historian of Social Times and Spaces (Historical Materialism Book, 238)

## For a Multilinear Science of History Critics and interpreters have endlessly cited, to the point of boredom, the fact that Marx, 'by mere accident' , had again picked up Hegel's Science of Logic. They want to find correspondences and analogies. But they have not investigated the other side, namely, how history -of the conditions of the workers and their strugglesentered into Marx's conceptual elaboration; how the structure of Capital is not deducible beginning from a presumed Ausgangskategorie, but has, rather, the discontinuity of strata in tension with each other; how the historical material is assembled in the text and enters into tension, but in the same constellation, with conceptual exposition. A report on a workers' struggle is not, for Marx, only a fact of journalistic sensation that can be cited as an example, but the point of condensation in which the entire theoretical exposition is concentrated and exploded.1 ∵ This investigation seeks to establish a dialogue between Marx's conception of history and some current problems in the philosophy of history, through the analysis of the categories of social space and social time. Along these lines, I interpret and systematise Marx's conception of history in its various levels in order to clarify his explicit positions, but equally to explore possibilities that he did not always thoroughly develop. This helps us address and reformulate problems of historical theory and historiography. Although the reading presented here seeks to understand Marx's corpus rigorously in its philosophical, historical and philological aspects, my aim is not to present an 'original Marx' -an attempt that has proved impossible after more than a century and a half of conflicting interpretations2 -but to highlight the possibilities of a 'best Marx' ‎Contents ‎Acknowledgements ‎Figures and Tables ‎Introduction. For a Multilinear Science of History ‎Chapter 1. History with Social Ontology ‎1.1. Praxis and Spatio-Temporal Totalisation ‎1.2. Historical Being, Historicity and Categories ‎1.3. From World-History to Spatio-Temporal Complexity ‎Epilogue ‎Chapter 2. Theory, Models and Explanation ‎2.1. Abstraction and Method ‎2.2. Modes of Production and Spatio-Temporal Models ‎2.3. Space-Time in Historical Explanation ‎Epilogue ‎Chapter 3. In Marx’s Archive ‎3.1. Documentary Critique and Critique of Ideology ‎3.2. The Imperial Archive and the Limits to Interpretation ‎3.3. Beyond Marx’s Archive ‎Epilogue ‎Chapter 4. Narrative as Presentation ‎4.1. Presentation, Chronotopes, Narrative ‎4.2. Poetics of Theory ‎4.3. Emplotment as Politics ‎Epilogue ‎Conclusions. Towards a Politics of Spatio-Temporal Totalisation ‎Bibliography ‎Index Through a discussion with current perspectives in philosophy of history – especially with a critical approach to Paul Ricœur’s work – and a rigorous reading of Karl Marx’s oeuvre, Karl Marx, Historian of Social Times and Spaces proposes an interpretation of Marx's concept and method of historical knowledge. In this sense the examination of Marx's concepts of social space and social time serve to highlight the possibilities of his work in terms of the explanation of the dynamics of complex multilinear development of human societies and of capitalism in particular. "Through a discussion with current perspectives in philosophy of history - especially with a critical approach to Paul Ricœur's work - and a rigorous reading of Marx's oeuvre this book proposes an interpretation of this author's concept and method of historical knowledge. In this sense the examination of his concepts of social space and social time serve to highlight the possibilities of the best Marx in terms of the explanation of the dynamics of complex multilinear development of human societies and of capitalism in particular"-- Provided by publisher Through a discussion with current perspectives in philosophy of history and a rigorous reading of his oeuvre this book highlights the possibilities of the best Marx in terms of his capacity to account for the development of spatiotemporally complex societies.