Manchester University Press
1 Human nature and historical materialism
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Abstract
It is remarkable that many have discerned, with the emergency of the materialist conception of history, a dismissal by Marx of the idea of human nature. The German Ideology, expressly criticizes the mistake of those who, ignoring what it terms the 'real basis of history', thereby exclude from the historical process 'the relation of man to nature', create an 'antithesis of nature and history'. At one point it echoes a passage from The Holy Family just in emphasizing nature's internal and external dimensions. In this chapter, Geras shows how the materialist usage of 'powers of human nature', 'natural desires', 'natural character' plays an important role in the formulation of Marx's theory of history, showcasing the concepts and arguments placed in these two works and the Theses on Feuerbach. The Holy Family is an 'early' work; it antedates historical materialism, while The German Ideology itself proposes the theory of historical materialism.
Abstract
It is remarkable that many have discerned, with the emergency of the materialist conception of history, a dismissal by Marx of the idea of human nature. The German Ideology, expressly criticizes the mistake of those who, ignoring what it terms the 'real basis of history', thereby exclude from the historical process 'the relation of man to nature', create an 'antithesis of nature and history'. At one point it echoes a passage from The Holy Family just in emphasizing nature's internal and external dimensions. In this chapter, Geras shows how the materialist usage of 'powers of human nature', 'natural desires', 'natural character' plays an important role in the formulation of Marx's theory of history, showcasing the concepts and arguments placed in these two works and the Theses on Feuerbach. The Holy Family is an 'early' work; it antedates historical materialism, while The German Ideology itself proposes the theory of historical materialism.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Introduction 1
- I Marxism and liberalism 7
- On Geras’s Marxism 9
- 1 Human nature and historical materialism 14
- 2 ‘That most complex being’ 32
- 3 Minimum utopia 49
- 4 The controversy about Marx and justice 61
- 5 What does it mean to be a Marxist? 104
- 6 The Euston Manifesto 114
- 7 The reductions of the left 122
- II The longest hatred: antisemitism 131
- 8 Alibi antisemitism 133
- 9 Marxists before the Holocaust 140
- 10 Marx and antisemitism 161
- III The responsibility to protect 163
- 11 The duty to bring aid 165
- 12 Humanitarian intervention 184
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Humanitarian intervention
- 13 The war in Iraq 195
- 14 On justifying military intervention in Syria 201
- 15 Burying humanitarian intervention 203
- Part IV: Normblog: the best of 205
- Epilogue 248
- Norman Geras 255
- Index 264
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Introduction 1
- I Marxism and liberalism 7
- On Geras’s Marxism 9
- 1 Human nature and historical materialism 14
- 2 ‘That most complex being’ 32
- 3 Minimum utopia 49
- 4 The controversy about Marx and justice 61
- 5 What does it mean to be a Marxist? 104
- 6 The Euston Manifesto 114
- 7 The reductions of the left 122
- II The longest hatred: antisemitism 131
- 8 Alibi antisemitism 133
- 9 Marxists before the Holocaust 140
- 10 Marx and antisemitism 161
- III The responsibility to protect 163
- 11 The duty to bring aid 165
- 12 Humanitarian intervention 184
-
Humanitarian intervention
- 13 The war in Iraq 195
- 14 On justifying military intervention in Syria 201
- 15 Burying humanitarian intervention 203
- Part IV: Normblog: the best of 205
- Epilogue 248
- Norman Geras 255
- Index 264
