The Relationship between Objective Necessity and Subjective Freedom in the Materialist Conception of History: Georgi Plejánov’s Contributions

Abstract

This paper seeks to offer an interpretation of the philosophical thought of the Russian Marxist author Georgi Plekhanov through the exegesis of some of his major works. We focus on the analysis that this thinker made of the relationship between objective necessity and subjective freedom, and its implications for the explanation of historical development. The point of departure is the discussion about the place of free will in the historical process, and we try to develop the ideas that Plekhanov employed to address this issue in terms of historical materialism. As this is an ontological and epistemological discussion derived from the subject-object relationship in the social sciences, the retrieval of the ideas of this somewhat forgotten author seeks to contribute to a still ongoing debate in the field of the theory of history.