Dialectical Nature

Bibliographic Data

ID9200370
AuthorsBrett Clark (0000-0002-3929-1322), Richard York (0000-0002-0890-5803)
Year2005
Volume57
Issue1
Pages13
Publication date2005-05-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMonthly Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0027-0520 • E-ISSN: 0027-0520
PublisherMonthly Review Foundation (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.14452/mr-057-01-2005-05_2
OpenAlexW4250788392
LanguageEN
Citations received9

Richard Levins wrote in these pages (July-August 1986) that an appreciation of history and science is necessary to understand the world, challenge bourgeois ideological monopoly, and transcend religious obscurantism. Knowledge of science and history is needed in order not only to comprehend how the world came to be, but also to understand how the world can be changed. Marx and Engels remained committed students of the natural sciences throughout their lives, filling notebooks with detailed comments, quotes, and analyses of the scientific work of their time. Marx, through his studies of Greek natural philosophy-in particular Epicurus-and the development of the natural sciences, arrived at a materialist conception of nature to which his materialist conception of history was organically and inextricably linked. Marx and Engels, however, rejected mechanical materialism and reductionism, insisting on the necessity of a dialectical analysis of the world. Engels's Dialectics of Nature serves as an early, unfinished attempt to push this project forward. A materialist dialectic recognizes that humans and nature exist in a coevolutionary relationship. Human beings are conditioned by their historical, structural environment; yet they are also able to affect that environment and their own relationship to it through conscious human intervention.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Bourgeoisie · Dialectic · Dialectical materialism · Epistemology · Ideology · Materialism · Natural (archaeology) · Natural Philosophy · Political science · Politics · Reductionism · Social science · Sociology · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism