Is it possible to think progress and history not as a mere succession of facts but as a process involving a complex and determinate meaning? Marxism (and its political history, which cannot be reduced to crime nor completely justified in the name of an ideal) still offers us a critical-conceptual apparatus, able to analyze the concrete reality of our times with lucidity and accuracy. The quality of its methodology and tools is the most important inheritance of Marx and Engels’ lesson. In this perspective, we absolutely need to keep philosophical criticism and historical memory together. This choice implies the loss of that side of Marxism that indulges to philosophical-ideological predictions (and therefore to forms of prophetism) and the pursuit of a critical theory of society that, thanks to Gramsci’s indication, gives us a dynamic conception of history. A conception that moves from the objectivity of history, but at the same time emphasizes the role of subjectivity and its freedom. Keywords: Progress; Historicism; Marxism; Gramsci.

Materialismo Storico, N. 1-2 (2016)