I’m reading through some of our literature (namely Socialism, Utopian and Scientific) and I really get the sense that many of our intellectual forebears think that everything important in philosophy happened in Europe. Granted, European philosophy is necessarily of primary relevance in a critique of early capitalism, but when Engels traces the history of these strains of thought (materialism, dialectics, etc.), they all go back to ancient Greece. I find this suspicious.
Is this a consequence of lopsided education, either of the target audience or of Engels himself? Have non-western Marxists grafted dialectical materialism onto Asian or African philosophy? Are there analogous movements within these cultures that dovetail nicely with Dialectical Materialism? Or do they more or less take Engels at his word here? Maybe I’m misinterpreting something.
Just a minor contribution to discussion, but someone tried to pull this argument in what they thought was good faith recently in a leftist space I’m in. They were using a quote that came from Dionisio Inca Yupanqui originally, saying Marx stole it. Marx’s lines were, at worst, a paraphrase, but hardly a theft in my opinion.
They were so convinced this meant a damning nail in the coffin of Marxism though, despite the fact that the Twitter thread they linked was actually full of people coming to the much more obvious conclusion that this was a sign of Marx’s consideration of and research into other cultures, and obviously how similar conclusions can be drawn cross-culturally.
Liberals want Marxism to be Eurocentric because it gives them a way to critique it that resounds within their framework and what struggle(s) they feel ownership/dominion over. It’s not a valid critique, as everyone here and in my own example pointed out. One should simply consider what Xi, Díaz-Canel, Nguyễn, Kim, etc. would think about that.