business of "philosophy" to take care of itself and show how it was done or frankly confess its impotency. It is clearly a case of those philosophers' own funeral.
It is true that the learned philosophers, in the person of Professor Masaryk,[1] strongly object to the introduction of such vulgar "matters" as puddings into the discussion of such lofty subjects. But the loftiness is all theirs, and we who do not soar in the realms of phantasy can very well afford to stick to the gross "material" facts. We, therefore, claim, with Engels, that the proof of the materialistic conception of history is to be looked for in history itself.
But when it comes to actual history, these philosophers must admit that the facts, or at least a good many of them, happen to tally with the "unphilosophic" Materialistic Conception of History. So says Weisengruen himself:
"For certain historical relations within certain periods of time this historical theory (The Materialistic Conception of History) is a relatively correct, practical, explanatory principle (Erklärungsprincip). We can, for instance, by its aid drag out from historical obscurity the more hidden economic forces which propelled the French Revolution. We can, by its aid, I am convinced, throw more clear and glaring light on the period of decline of the Roman Empire, than could be done until now. Many phases of the German middle ages may be understood by us with the aid of a mild economic motivation. The powerlessness of the German Bourgeoisie, particularly during the year 1848, may be partly explained by purely economic causes."
As the reader will see, this great opponent of Marxism, who in another place of his book insists that Marxism must be thrown overboard, bag and baggage, is willing to concede quite considerable to the Materialistic Conception of History. In fact, he has nonchalantly conceded almost all of European History since the beginning of the Christian Era (the breaking up of the Roman Empire, the German
- ↑ T. G. Masaryk, Die philosophischen und sociologischen Grundlagen des Marxismus. Wien, 1899.
