Marx saw his theory of Historical Materialism as the sociological equivalent of Darwin's Theory of Evolution. In the same way that Darwin's theory explained the evolution of biological species, purely on the basis of natural laws that create a process of natural selection, by which the most beneficial features of any species leads to it flourishing, whilst those without that benefit die out, so Marx sought to explain the evolution of social formations in the same way. This was revolutionary, because, prior to this development, all sociology was subjective. It attempted to explain the existence and development of different social organisms on the basis of the role of individuals, who shaped such formations, or else by the peculiar traits and characteristics of different types of peoples, as well as having been decreed by God or his representatives on Earth. The rationalist alternative to the latter was that it was the unfolding of the Idea, as though there was some rational form of organisation of society that it was evolving towards, as it was developed in the minds of Men. Kant's Categorical Imperative, proposed that there was some universalisable Moral Law that could be deduced by logic that could act to provide the rational core of the way Man should behave in society, a society that Man created as an act of Will in forming a Social Contract. Marx's materialist theory removed, at a stroke, the need for all of these explanations that were incapable of being scientifically tested, and placed the study of social development on the same scientific basis as the study of all other phenomena.
A myth has been around for some time that Marx even asked Darwin if he could dedicate part of Capital to him. He didn't. For most of their adult life, Marx and Darwin lived just a few miles from each other, and both were certainly aware of each other, and had contact through Edward Aveling. Marx read and reread Darwin's work. Marx did send Darwin a copy of Capital Volume I, and there is a letter in the Darwin Correspondence Library, acknowledging its receipt, as well as the actual book in the Darwin library. Marx himself talked about receipt of the letter from Darwin. In 1862, Marx, along with Wilhelm Liebknicht, attended a series of six lectures on Darwin's theory given by Thomas Huxley. And, in the Preface to Capital Volume I, Marx writes setting out this materialist conception,
“To prevent possible misunderstanding, a word. I paint the capitalist and the landlord in no sense couleur de rose [i.e., seen through rose-tinted glasses]. But here individuals are dealt with only in so far as they are the personifications of economic categories, embodiments of particular class-relations and class-interests. My standpoint, from which the evolution of the economic formation of society is viewed as a process of natural history, can less than any other make the individual responsible for relations whose creature he socially remains, however much he may subjectively raise himself above them.”
But, both Marx and Engels rejected the crude determinism that is also inherent in Darwin's own materialism. For example, Engels writes that its impossible to compare animal behaviour with human behaviour, because animals are gatherers (not entirely, but substantially true) whereas humans are also producers. Animals are engaged in a struggle for survival, whereas humans, once they have passed a certain stage of development of the productive forces, also produce for enjoyment and leisure. And, from the beginning, this production depends at least as much upon cooperation, as it does on competition. In fact, as subsequent evolutionary biologists like Dawkins have shown, this cooperation is, in fact, not unique to humans but applies across most species. Whilst one species may compete against another, that competition depends upon a degree of cooperation within each species for its own prospects. Some species cooperate with other species where it is to their mutual advantage. The concept of the selfish gene means that some members of each species must be sacrificed in order that the species itself may flourish. This is a concept that Marx himself discusses in Theories of Surplus Value, Chapter 9, in discussing Ricardo (see Part 3).
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