Marx, Engels y una (re)producción material del vivir humano: hacia la restitución de una base histórica

The material (re)production of human living ultimately describes, in our view, what in the materialistic approach to history of Marx and Engels can be understood as the economic base. In order to illustrate this assertion, the paper considers the following formulations which consider the amplitude of economic relations: “production of material life itself”, “production of life”, “mode of production of material life” and “production and reproduction of immediate life”. Production always entails reproduction; it entails the conditions that guarantee its continuity. This is construed as the basic condition –although, as will be shown in this paper, not in a narrow sense – of society. It is this perspective, not systematized by the two German authors, but widely present in most of their writings, which is intended to be retrieved for debate here, with a view to restore a historical foundation.