The Materiality of Ideas in Marx and Its Epistemological Implications for Regional Development in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes Karl Marx’s contribution to the epistemology of Regional Development in Brazil, based on the notion of the materiality of ideas and the critique of the abstract autonomy of thought. The object of the investigation consists of the theoretical reconstruction of the epistemological shift operated by Marx in relation to the formalist tradition of Western thought, particularly that grounded in Aristotelian logic. The central objective is to demonstrate that the incorporation of historical materiality and labor as foundations of knowledge constitutes a decisive epistemological principle for the consolidation of critical approaches to regional development in the Brazilian context. From a methodological standpoint, the article adopts a theoretical-analytical approach based on conceptual reconstruction and critical dialogue with classical and contemporary authors. In a first moment, it examines the formal basis of ideas in Aristotle, highlighting a conception of knowledge founded on the logical ordering of thought and on the abstract universality of rational principles, which excludes the historical and social determinations of material life from the epistemological field. Subsequently, it analyzes the Marxian critique of this paradigm, emphasizing the centrality of labor, the material production of social life, and the historical determination of ideas in the constitution of knowledge. Next, the article investigates the unfolding of this epistemological shift in the field of regional development through dialogue with authors from Brazilian social thought and from the field of Regional Development. It argues that the incorporation of the materiality of ideas made it possible to overcome technocratic and abstract approaches to development, enabling interpretations that understand territory and regional inequalities as historical products of social relations of production and the territorial division of labor. The article concludes that Marx’s contribution goes beyond the methodological level, constituting a central epistemological foundation for the analysis of regional development in Brazil and reaffirming the relevance of Marxism as a critical and interdisciplinary tool for understanding regional inequalities.