How is materialism at its extreme marxist
Marxism is a purely materialist philosophy.
You must understand that materialism means two thing, both of which are deeply intertwined.
- Materialism is an obsession with material (physical things made of matter)
- Dismissal of theism (the transcendental)
Marxisms two fundamental ideas are that man is derived purely from physical nature and the materialist conception of history. The first is self explanatory, though Marx is very specific as it pertains to how theism arises in man (and these ideas are connected deeply with his philosophy of history). The second is what enutsur has touched upon and is essentially a view of world history and daily life in which all is a struggle for material, that is history is material. The fundamental thing that distinguishes Man from beat is his capacity to use matter to create material and that creation is the fundamental force behind social relations.
That's the gist.
Marx seems to despise materialism all the same, however. But I think that it is good and natural. I am biased though, look at my avatar.
He does not despise materialism at all, he believes it is the one true important thing.
He along with Smith are the most famous Materlialists in recent memory because they spent most of their lives endorsing it. Marx merely has a specific view on how materialism should work or rather how it does work - but more on that in a second.
Marx was a massive fan of Hegel and is essentially a Hegelian who replaced Idealism with Materialism - keep in mind Idealism is transcendental which Marx rejects. Hegelianism is built on the idea of the dialectic which you have an extremely lay man knowledge of do to your study's in writing. The dialectic at a low level is built on the dynamic of thesis and antithesis and how these two things interact and lead into one another. The dialectic is the broad category and for Marx the broadest category that dictates human affairs is Materialism, hence it isn't something he loves or hate but if anything accepts as the fundamental human reality outside of nature. The thesis can be seen as capitalism, that which comes out of Smith, and the antithesis is Marxism which is what capitalism leads into. Hence, capitalism in this view is really the same thing as marxism because they are merely different stages of the same process. Marx calls this Dialectical Materialism.
As a side note the dialectic is a trifecta, there's an added upward dimension called the synthesis but...that's complicated.
