试论马克思恩格斯关于人与自然的和谐共生理论英文

HUMAN BEING & NATURE

On the Theory of Harmonious Co-existence between Man

and Nature by Marx and Engels

Kong Xiangli*

Economic Research Center, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710062, P.R. China

Abstract: Marx and Engles believed that man and nature develop harmoniously, when the activities of manconstitute the content of nature, which is changed constantly because of the activities of man. Marx and Englesalso pointed out the duality of the conquest, change and influence exerted on nature by man. On one hand, it canimprove people’s living conditions and make people free from the enslavement of the nature. On the other hand,it may also lead to excessively snatching and wrecking nature, then make the deterioration of the environmentand ecology out of balance. They also, from the technical angle of ecology, put forward the concrete measures torealize the harmonious symbiosis of man and nature in the development of economy. They also believed thatonly when socialism or communism is realized, can the conciliation of mankind and nature be realized finally.Marx and Engle’s theory of harmonious symbiosis of man and nature is of great theoretical directive significancefor us to insist on the scientific development view.

Keywords: Marx and Engles, man and nature, harmony.

I. The Coming of the Theory

The development of productivity is the foundation of Marxistmaterialist conception of history. The process of productivitydevelopment is the contradictory movement of productivityand relations of production, and also the interaction processof man and nature. Productivity reflects the relation betweenman and nature. It is the course of material transformationbetween man and nature. While analyzing the relation be-tween man and nature, Marx has given it the intension of thematerial transformation. He thought that for human and nature,the material transformation is realized through laboring. Here,“material transformation is a scientific ecological concept,which refers to the transformation including materials, energy,information etc. between human and nature.” We should pointout, because of the objective influence of era and practice ofrevolution, the key point of Marxist theoretical research ismainly in the development of productivity, through contradic-tory movement of the productivity and relations of production,to reveal “the development of the social-economic formationis an objective historical course.” At the time of Marx andEngels, the conflict and contradiction between man and na-ture did not develop to bring extremely serious ecologicalproblem. So Marx and Engles didn’t carry on special system-atical research on the ecological issue about the harmonioussymbiosis of man and nature. But the relation between manand nature, which sporadically appeared in the classic Marxist

remarks and Das Kapital, showed us the ecological value ofits socio-economic development, and has become the theo-retical origin of the scientific development view. It is of greatdirective significance for us to build the well-off society in anall-round way and “to promote harmony between man andnature, to go on the civilized development path of productiondeveloping, rich life and good ecology.”

II. Harmonious symbiosis of man and natureMarx and Engels thought that symbiosis and co-existence ofman and nature is an organic entity. Nature is the foundationand prerequisite of man’s forming, evolving and civilizing,and it is also the material condition of human society existing.Human is the result that the nature has developed for a longtime, and human being is one of the members of nature. Marxpointed out in Economics-the Philosophy Manuscript of 1844:“People depend on nature. That means, nature is the bodywhich people must associate with constantly for unlikelydeath. That the human physical life and cultural life are re-lated to nature also means nature is related to itself, becausepeople are a part of the nature. ” “The whole nature—first aspeople’s direct production material, then as life material, tar-get and tool—become man’s inorganic body.” “People arenatural existing things directly” and they are natural exist-ence alive. Man is a part of the nature, and a subsystem inthe whole natural system. The human subsystem and natu-

*Kong Xiangli(1963-), male. Phd. in the Economic Research Center of the Northwest University of Technology, associate professor of economics in Shannxi Normal University. Major inecological economics, economic behaviors of government.

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ral system are interrelated with each other, also influenceand depend on each other. Human’s survival and develop-ment depend on the nature. And human activity itself formsthe nature. Just like what Engels said, “We belong to naturewith our meat, blood, and head.” Human and nature are anorganic entity. In this entity, human being is not only naturalexistence, but also “most qualified social animal” Mankindhas reason and the intelligence that other animals do nothave. Man can understand and utilize the natural rules ac-tively and consciously, through the purposeful activity—work,obtain material goods from nature, and let nature benefit themankind. This process is the process of causing, adjustingand controlling material transformation of man and naturethrough activities of human being. The mankind obtains mate-rials which people rely on to survive from nature. On theother hand, the marks of the human activities have left in theappearance of the nature. In the nature, geography, climate,animal, plant and the mankind itself are changing constantly.All these are owed to human’s activities. On the whole, thedevelopment of productivity enables the nature to be moresuitable for the existence and development of human being,namely what Marx said, “the humanization of the nature”.However, the organic unity of human and nature has onlyoffered us the possibility of the harmonious symbiosis.Whether the possibility can be realized and how to realized,depend on people’s attitude and behavior toward nature.About the problem how to develop, people are facing differ-ent choices.

III. Nature’s revenge to the human being

Marx and Engels pointed out that if humankind develops blindly,and conquered and destroyed nature unboundedly, the natu-ral ecological balance would be broken and people wouldsuffer the nature’s vindictiveness. Mankind’s interventiondegree and influence exerted to the nature have duality. Onthe other hand, it can improve people’s living conditions andmake people come out from the enslavement state of thenature. On the other hand, it may also lead to excessivelyseizing and wrecking nature, then make the deterioration ofthe environment and ecology out-of-balance. Engels said:“The civilization is an opposite course, which in its form sofar makes the land barren, forest go out of cultivation, soilunable to produce his initial products, and makes the climateworsen.” “If mankind conquers the nature force by scienceand creating talent, the natural force will retaliate againstpeople too , and make him obey a kind of real autocracy

according to the degree of his utilizing the natural force, andno matter how the social organization is.” “Autocracy” herejust refers to the objective laws of the nature, as well as therevenge and punishment of nature because of destroyingthe natural environment. Marx and Engels paid much atten-tion to the mutual coordination of improvement of the produc-tivity level and economic social development. They also seri-ously criticized the behavior of destroying the environmentand nature. At the beginning of 1868, in a letter to Engels,Marx said: “If cultivation goes on spontaneously, instead ofbeing controlled consciously, barrenness of the land willcome, just as Persia, Mesopotamia, and Greece, etc.” WhileEngels was investigating the reason why ancient civilizationhad declined, he said with pity, “The residents ofMesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and other all parts, in orderto get the land, have cutting down all forests, but they cannot know that these places became the unexpectedly barrenland today. Because they made the forest disappear in theseplaces, and they lost the centre of accumulating and storingmoisture. Italian of the Alps, in south slope, cut down allpinewoods protected carefully in north slope, they have notexpected, in this case, they destroyed the foundation of thealpine animal husbandry of high mountain in their area. Andthey have not expected even more, their action made moun-tain spring exhausted most of the time in one year, and inrainy season more violent flood comes down in torrents tothe grassland.” The midstream and downstream of the Nile,the basin of Euphrates River and the middle state of theYellow River, ecological environment of these three majorcivilization origins in the world is being destroyed with crazyexploitation and irrational development. The remarks and ad-monition of Marx and Engels have general ecologicalmeanings. Mankind must keep sense, appropriateness andrestraining in the course of contacting with the nature. Wecan’t develop productivity with the cost of sacrificing theecological environment.

Marx and Engels thought that the great industry while ad-vancing the development of social productivity, brought de-struction to the natural environment, and the relation betweenhuman and nature has suffered from sharp antithesis andalienation. Law of surplus value is that capitalist in order toobtain more surplus value and meet the desire that wealthincreases unrestrictedly, regards the maximization of profitas the enterprise goal. But the natural objective law, thesustainable utilization of natural resources, the working en-

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vironment of workers, and people’s living quality are all sub-merged in seizing direct profit and pursuing economic benefits.Nature has become the object that people conquer and remake.“Only under the capitalism, nature is people’s object, a usefulthing; it is no longer considered as the self-protected strength;and the theoretical cognition of independent law of naturecharacterized by cunning, and its purpose is to make thenature submit to people’s need.” The social productivity de-velops with the destruction that human does to the nature.Marx and Engels witnessed the ecological destruction, thetypes, state and danger of environmental pollution, andsummed up them in Das Kapital. The first point is that thestate and danger of the air pollution of great industrial city.The polluting sources are: the industry soot, life coals, house-hold garbage, and waste gas, waste water, waste materialfrom factories, etc. The second is that the state and dangerof the pollution of the urban surface water and river of greatindustry. “Black water”, “foul water” and “sewage” havepolluted urban water and river seriously. The third is thatworkers’ living conditions is abominable, especially the envi-ronmental pollution of the inhabitant palaces; and the fourthis that the state of workers’ working surroundings. The dustpollution, harmful and poisonous gas, high temperature, noise,

and so on, have seriously destroyed the workers’ health.Facing the serious environmental pollution and ecologicalproblem, Engels, the latter years of his life, distractedly pointedout: “As for some amazing phenomena brought by economicchange…… all countries which have already experiencedor are experiencing this kind of course, have such situationmore or less. Field wearing —such as in U.S.A.; the forestdisappearing — such as in Britain and France, in France andU.S.A. at present; the climate changing, the rivers silting areprobably more terrible in Russia than in any other places.”How serious the destruction of the ecology and environmentis, which brought by immoderate and blind development.IV. The theoretical origin of the scientific develop-ment view

The west countries, in the course of developing productivityand social economy, have gone through a path that “protec-tion follows exploitation”, “reclamation follows development”,and “recovery follows destruction”. As a result, they paidenormous environmental and ecological cost. From WorldWar II on, especially in the late 20th century, developed capi-talist countries have already begun to realize the seriousconsequence of developing by sacrificing ecology

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environment, and that it will influence the lasting growth ofthe capital. Therefore, the environmentalism became popular.It advocated green, returning to the nature, and implementingthe sustainable development strategy. They have taken a lotof measures to protect the ecological environment, and havegreatly improved the ecological environment. This proved,from another perspective, that Marks and Engles` thoughtabout the harmonious symbiosis of human and nature is sci-entific and forecasting.

The theory of harmonious symbiosis of man and nature ofMarx and Engels, still guides us today and it has become thetheoretical origin of the scientific development view. Marxand Engels believed that productivity is formed in the inter-course between human and nature. However, the relationbetween human and nature is also the relation between hu-man and society. If they did not combine with each other toco-act and interacted one way or another, production wouldbecome impossible. We should adjust the long-term naturalresult and social influence of production, and make thembeneficial to man. Then we can really realize “the conciliationbetween human and nature” put forward in Dialectics ofNature by Engles—human is a part of nature; human beingrespects nature, treats nature kindly, and utilizes nature tobenefit mankind; the ideal situation of human being is theharmony between human and nature. Then in which way torealize the harmony between human and nature while highlydeveloping productivity? “United producers will rationally regu-late the material exchange between people and nature, andput it under their common control, but not allow it to rule themas blind strength. Consuming minimum strength, they do thematerial exchange under the most worthy and suitable con-dition of human natural instinct. “ [14]In addition, Marx andEngels, from the technical perspective of ecology, pointedout the concrete method in which productivity develops theharmony between human and nature. With the developmentof science and technology, people’s ability to utilize naturerationally and effectively will be strengthened. “Technologycan reveal people’s initiative relation to nature.” With the de-velopment of science and technology, the utilizing efficiencyof resources will be increased, and wastes can be utilizedagain. “The improvement of the machine makes materials thatactually can’t be utilized in original form, obtain a kind of formthat can be utilized in new production; scientific progress,especially the progress of chemistry, have found the usefulnature of wastes”. With the development of science and

technology, people will set up complete material circulationsystem. “Progress in chemistry……, it also taught peoplehow to put the waste material in the production process andprocess of consumption into the reproducing recirculation,thus do not need to pay the capital in advance, and createthe new capital material by oneself.” It is in fact the sustainedproduction, and to apply the idea that science and technol-ogy are the first productivity to support the sustainable de-velopment of economy. To realize the harmony between hu-man and nature and to establish an ecological civilized soci-ety where a person can develop fully and completely, it is thesupreme state of scientific development view.

In a word, Marx and Engels, while discussing the relationbetween human and nature, have given ecological meaningto the theories. They have explained the harmonious symbio-sis of man and nature and revealed seeking profit leads todestruction of the natural ecological environment. They alsoshowed us the revenge from nature because of environ-mental pollution and ecological imbalance. Marx and Englessuggested that people must respect nature, treat naturegently, and realize the harmony between human and natureon the material base of science and technology advance andproductivity development. Marx and Engels’ theory of thesymbiosis of human and nature is of great instructivenessand directive significance for our carrying out the sustain-able development strategy and building a well-off society inan all-round way, and it is the Marxist theoretical origin of thescientific development view.

References

[1] Jiang Zemin. 2002. Report to the 16th National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China. Guide to the 16th National People’s Congress. Beijing: Renmin Press.

[2] Marx, Engles.1956. Marx and Engles’ Complete Works. Beijing: People Press.

[3] Marx, Engles. 1972. Marx and Engles’ Selected Readings. Beijing: People Press.

[4]Editing Department of Philosophy Study. 1979. Works on Dialectics of Nature. Jiling: Jiling People Press.1.

[5]Wang Shuen, et al. 2000. Generating, Types, Situations and Harm of the Neoteric Ecological Destruction and Environmental Pollution. Social and Scientific Fighting Front. (2) . 84-82.

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