Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend

Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend

Cover of the first edition
Author Norman Geras
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject Karl Marx
Published 1983 (Verso)
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 126
ISBN 978-1784782351

Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend is a 1983 book by political theorist Norman Geras, in which Geras discusses Karl Marx's Sixth Thesis on Feuerbach and argues against "the obstinate old legend" that Marx denied the existence of a universal human nature.[1] Geras's work is a classic discussion of the subject, and his conclusions have been endorsed by numerous scholars.

Summary

Geras discusses Marx's Sixth Thesis on Feuerbach, which states of the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach: "Feuerbach resolves the essence of religion into the essence of man. But the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations. Feuerbach, who does not enter upon a criticism of this real essence, is hence obliged: 1. To abstract from the historical process and to define the religious sentiment by itself, and to presuppose an abstract - isolated - human individual. 2. Essence, therefore, can be regarded only as 'species', as an inner, mute, general character which unites the many individuals in a natural way."[2]

Based on his reading of the Thesis, Geras argues that Marx had a definite conception of human nature and did not hold the social constructionist view that human being can be reduced to its relation with others.[3] He maintains that the concept of human nature is compatible with historical materialism, and criticizes Louis Althusser and his followers for popularizing a belief to the contrary.[4] Geras is also critical of the Hungarian Marxist philosopher István Mészáros, finding his work Marx's Theory of Alienation (1970) to be an example of the way in which Marxists have illogically denied that human nature exists even while engaging in analysis of Marx that depends on the concept of a human nature.[5]

Philosophers Geras takes a more favorable view of include the Croatian Gajo Petrović, author of Marx in the Mid-Twentieth Century (1965), and the Canadian Gerald Cohen, author of Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978). Geras calls Cohen's book the leading philosophical discussion of the way in which the character of human beings in any setting depends upon the nature of the prevailing social relations.[6]

Scholarly reception

Geras's conclusions in Marx and Human Nature have been endorsed by scholars such as psychoanalyst Joel Kovel, political scientist David McLellan, and literary critic Terry Eagleton.[3][7][8] Political theorist Terrell Carver, writing in an appendix to the 1995 version of Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, calls Marx and Human Nature a classic study of the question of whether Marx believed in human nature.[9]

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Geras 1983. p. 11.
  2. ↑ Geras 1983. p. 29.
  3. 1 2 Kovel 1991. p. 255.
  4. ↑ Geras 1983. p. 19.
  5. ↑ Geras 1983. pp. 53-54.
  6. ↑ Geras 1983. pp. 19, 39-40, 117.
  7. ↑ McLellan 1985. p. 267.
  8. ↑ Eagleton 2012. p. 80.
  9. ↑ Carver 1995. p. 214.

Bibliography

Books
  • Berlin, Isaiah; Ryan, Alan; Carver, Terrell (1995). Karl Marx: His Life and Environment. London: Fontana Press. ISBN 0-00-686339-6. 
  • Eagleton, Terry (2012). Why Marx Was Right. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18153-1. 
  • Geras, Norman (1983). Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend. London: Verso Editions. ISBN 0 86091 767 3. 
  • Kovel, Joel (1991). History and Spirit: An Inquiry into the Philosophy of Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-2916-5. 
  • McLellan, David (1995). The Thought of Karl Marx: An Introduction. London: Papermac. ISBN 0-333-63948-0. 
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