Policy Press
3 Positive bases: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology II – human essence and history
Abstract
The needs (N) that determine production are not original N, but N originated in production. N are as produced as products. The degree to which N created by production becomes necessary, the higher the level to which human wealth has developed. Man’s universality is not a feature of all individuals. Work, sociality, and consciousness are necessary/permanent traits of every individual, but thus conceived they lose their anthropological meaning. Under alienation work becomes an externally imposed activity, the dependence of the individual on the social whole does not mean collective existence. Everyday consciousness divorces from the development of social consciousness. HE are the characteristics of the real historical existence of mankind which make it possible to comprehend history as a continuous/unified process. History is the process of human ‘self-creation’. The bearer of the HE is not the single individual, but human society in its continuous development. At the social whole, history unfolds as the process of man’s progressive universalisation/liberation, but this has not meant the emergence of increasingly universal/free individuals, for whom there is no unified criterion to comprehend history as evolution. Alienation is the discrepancy of historical progress from the development of individuals; the separation/opposition of man’s essence and existence.
Abstract
The needs (N) that determine production are not original N, but N originated in production. N are as produced as products. The degree to which N created by production becomes necessary, the higher the level to which human wealth has developed. Man’s universality is not a feature of all individuals. Work, sociality, and consciousness are necessary/permanent traits of every individual, but thus conceived they lose their anthropological meaning. Under alienation work becomes an externally imposed activity, the dependence of the individual on the social whole does not mean collective existence. Everyday consciousness divorces from the development of social consciousness. HE are the characteristics of the real historical existence of mankind which make it possible to comprehend history as a continuous/unified process. History is the process of human ‘self-creation’. The bearer of the HE is not the single individual, but human society in its continuous development. At the social whole, history unfolds as the process of man’s progressive universalisation/liberation, but this has not meant the emergence of increasingly universal/free individuals, for whom there is no unified criterion to comprehend history as evolution. Alienation is the discrepancy of historical progress from the development of individuals; the separation/opposition of man’s essence and existence.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- List of abbreviations viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Foreword xv
- Introduction 1
-
Negative and positive bases of the new paradigm
- Negative bases: a synthesis of the critique of the political economy of poverty (CPEP) 11
- Positive bases: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology I – work and the human essence 30
- Positive bases: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology II – human essence and history 45
- Two tests of Marx’s Philosophical Anthropology (MPhA) 64
- Positive bases of the New Paradigm II: concepts and theories of human needs 90
- Comparative analysis of human needs’ theories 109
-
The new paradigm: perspectives for its development
- A new approach to poverty and human flourishing 129
- Development challenges to the new approach to poverty and human flourishing 147
- Enriching the New Paradigm with Maslow’s and the subjective well-being currents of thought 180
- Thomson, Gill, and Goodson’s Happiness, Flourishing and the Good Life: challenging the Flourishing/Well-being approaches 217
- Final remarks 229
- References 232
- Index 242
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- List of abbreviations viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Foreword xv
- Introduction 1
-
Negative and positive bases of the new paradigm
- Negative bases: a synthesis of the critique of the political economy of poverty (CPEP) 11
- Positive bases: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology I – work and the human essence 30
- Positive bases: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology II – human essence and history 45
- Two tests of Marx’s Philosophical Anthropology (MPhA) 64
- Positive bases of the New Paradigm II: concepts and theories of human needs 90
- Comparative analysis of human needs’ theories 109
-
The new paradigm: perspectives for its development
- A new approach to poverty and human flourishing 129
- Development challenges to the new approach to poverty and human flourishing 147
- Enriching the New Paradigm with Maslow’s and the subjective well-being currents of thought 180
- Thomson, Gill, and Goodson’s Happiness, Flourishing and the Good Life: challenging the Flourishing/Well-being approaches 217
- Final remarks 229
- References 232
- Index 242
