Marx and Human Nature: The Historical, the Trans-Historical, and Human Flourishing

• Autores: Karsten J. Struhl
• Localización: Science and society, ISSN 0036-8237, Vol. 80, Nº. 1, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Socializing Philosophy), págs. 78-104
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Marxists often dismiss the idea of human nature, claiming either that, for Marx, there is no human nature or that Marx had only a historical concept of human nature. A more careful reading reveals that Marx, in fact, had a robust trans-historical concept of human nature as well as a historical one. These two concepts operate at different levels. The trans-historical concept refers to the general form that human social activity takes, while the historical concept refers to the specific forms of human sociality and individuality within a given historical epoch. What Marx's trans-historical concept explains is how it is possible to have human nature in its historical form. Furthermore, it provides the ground for Marx's ideal of human flourishing implicit in his vision of a communist society, components of which are supported by Kropotkin's reconstruction of evolutionary theory and more recent developments in evolutionary psychology.