Theory of Historical Resultant

Engels’ theory on the relations between the driving forces of historical development, the historical result and the human activity.

In a letter to Engels on 3 September 1890, Josef Bloch (then a student at the University of Berlin, later a journalist and a publisher) asked two questions, one of which was whether, according to the materialist conception of history, economic relations are the only the only determining moment or do they merely form, in a certain sense, a solid basis for all other relations, which can then become factors in their own right? In his reply to him on September 21-22, 1890, Engels clearly elaborated the theory of historical resultant: “History is made in such a way that the final result always arises from conflicts between many individual wills, of which each in turn has been made what it is by a host of particular conditions of life. Thus there are innumerable intersecting forces, an infinite series of parallelograms of forces which give rise to one resultant—the historical event. This may again itself be viewed as the product of a power which works as a whole unconsciously and without volition. For what each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed. Thus history has proceeded hitherto in the manner of a natural process and is essentially subject to the same laws of movement. But from the fact that the wills of individuals—each of whom desires what he is impelled to by his physical constitution and external, in the last resort economic, circumstances (either his own personal circumstances or those of society in general)—do not attain what they want, but are merged into an aggregate mean, a common resultant, it must not be concluded that they are equal to zero. On the contrary, each contributes to the resultant and is to this extent included in it.”

The theory of historical resultant has shown that, as the subject of historical activity, men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; it needs to be carried out under very definite premises and conditions. In this process, economic premises and conditions are the determining moment, while political and cultural factors, and even traditions in people’s minds, also play a certain role. It is from the interaction of these various factors that the final result of history arises, i.e., the “resultant” of the interaction of the various social elements that pushes forward constant historical development. In historical activity, any individual, depending on his particular conditions of life, has different purposes and wills. Each person’s will and purpose have an effect on the historical process. Thus, there are innumerable intersecting forces, but they act not as individual wills but as a common resultant of all wills merged together. This shows that human activities are not carried out individually and in isolation, but in a social manner, and therefore interact with each other and are conditioned by each other. It is this interaction and mutual conditioning that produces an objective force, the “common resultant”, which is independent of the will of any individual, and the formation of this resultant makes history become a process of natural history. But it cannot be concluded from this that will and the power of the individual have no role to play in the historical movement and amount to nothing. On the contrary, the will of each individual contributes to the formation of the historical resultant, which is a constituent element of it.

Engels’ theory of historical resultant is the most comprehensive and most profound explanation on the question concerning the relation between the driving forces of historical development, historical laws and individual activity by the classic writers of Marxism, which was a theoretical enrichment and improvement of historical materialism.