The Social and Economic Features of Jabal Nablus and Karl Marx's Methodology

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In my essay, I will argue that the application of Marx's theory of the separation of town and country on the social and economical developments, which took place in Jabal Nablus during 17-19th century, confirm the existence of other factors, which cultivated overwhelming city's domination over hinterland. I claim that in addition to private property, growing trade with Europe also had a major impact on the conflict between city and country. In order to prove it, I will perform a critical analysis on Marx's methodology . I will next examine his concepts of productive forces, unequal distribution of labor, and conflict of interests in the society. In the end, I present comparative analysis of the social and economical features of Jabal Nablus in opposition to the claims of Carl Marx. The German Ideology starts off by illustrating the critique of the German idealists, while presenting Marx and Engels' alternative: materialistic view of history. According to Marx, the main reason for political and economical retrogression of Germany is its obsession with Hegel's view on history as a chain of phases or manifestations of World Spirit or Absolute Mind. It's possible to trace Marx's critique in three different perspectives. Initially, he directed his critique towards the very nature of Hegelian system, by stating its "contemplative" aspect. Secondly, he presented detailed analysis of discrepancies, regarding logical categories and religious conceptions, which rose between the Young and Old Hegelians. According to old Hegelians, the history was simply chronology of ideas, and the reason Germany was flourishing ,only because it was constructed on the best ideas. In the meantime, Young Hegelians adopted dialectics... ... middle of paper ... ...nto the farthest reaches of hinterland- undermined the constituent elements of peasant autonomy". p53 Finally, I'd like to point out that M had a narrowed vision of conquests or military campaigns, which according to him could only "take" or totally devastate old civilization by barbarians. p93 Moreover, he stated that feudalism was initially brought by Germans, in particular, by the application of martial organization of their army on the conquered productive forces, which in the end developed feudalism. However, he didn't examine influence of military campaigns within the country or empires like Ottoman. Doumani states that three military campaigns, which were carried out by Ottoman army, mutasallim of Acre, and Egypt governor Muhammad Ali, only increased domination of city over hinterland and launched process of political centralization on various levels.

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