K. MARX: PRIRODNA POVIJEST (EKOLOGIJA)

Abstract

The starting point of this article is Foster’s (2000) far‑reaching thesis that Marx’s syntagm „natural history“(which signifies the metabolic relationship of nature and human beings) is the basis of an ecology that is neither anti‑rationalist nor idealist. Contemporary theoretical and political views are interpreted in light of this thesis: 1) Marx advanced his conception of natural history as a positive feature of Darwin’s evolutionary theory around the same time that the theory was established in the sciences (geology, physics, anthropology and biology). From the outset, he sought to connect it to human labor. This is why he applied Darwin’s term „natural technology“ to the development of labor, i.e. of human technology. Thus ecology is in the interpretation of the relationship between nature and human beings presented as a metabolic relation. This gives human technology a mediating role. 2) This also explains the existence of many organizations that fall under the label ‘ecosocialism’. 3) A proper understanding of Marx’s view of technology and the rejection of technologism is needed. To provide one, several negative consequences of technology are explored in cyborgization, robotization, and several extreme philosophical positions that culminate in transhumanism.