Abstract

The article looks at Marxist theory under two separate aspects: the socialist perspective of teleological determination of actions and causal determination over the long duration of historical periods. The first aspect is historically very changeable; Marx was thinking within the conditions of 19th century. As for the second aspect, his assessment of economic development trends was generally accurate. However, nowadays new societal aspects also need to be taken into account and their potential to contribute to the free development of society evaluated – albeit without one able to build on the traditional working class.