LEITURA CRÍTICA SOBRE A CONCEPÇÃO DE CAUSALIDADE HISTÓRICA EM MONTESQUIEU E KARL MARX

Abstract

This article offers a critical examination of object and method in the philosophy of history, drawing on the analytical core of Montesquieu’s and Marx’s approaches. It begins with an analysis of Montesquieu’s Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline, showing that his historical explanation rests on a conception of multiple causality centered on the actions of outstanding individuals—such as kings, consuls, and generals—whose virtue or moral decay is seen as decisive for historical outcomes. The discussion then turns to the Marxian critique of history, in which labor is understood as an ontological category and as the foundational ground of causal determination. The article also addresses the question of method in Marx, as emphasized by Althusser, and further develops the notion of the historical process as a contradictory totality, drawing on the work of João Leonardo Medeiros and on György Lukács’s ontology of social being. It argues that the shift from an individual-centered conception of causality to a critical framework grounded in labor enables a dialectical understanding of history as a dynamic interplay of continuity and transformation. In this sense, the study reaffirms the continuing relevance of the materialist method and ontological critique as powerful tools for grasping social forms in their ongoing process of becoming.