The Concept of Nature in Marx - Couverture rigide

Schmidt’s close reading of Marx’s own writings and his relation of them to the positions of Kant, Hegel, Engels, Lenin, the early Lukacs and Sartre, enables him to establish the significance of the mature Marx’s sense of the interpenetration of nature and society. He shows how Marxism cuts right across the traditional tendency to counterpose an abstract concept of man with an abstract concept of nature. Schmidt stresses the importance in Marxism of the development of industry and science as the mediation between historical man and external nature, leading either to their reconciliation (if positive) or to their mutual annihilation (if negative). He then both explores this mediation in history and shows how an awareness of its positive and negative possibilities is reflected in such writers as Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch.

“A subtle and scholarly treatment of Marx’s materialism. Schmidt’s work can be recommended as the best treatment of this much misunderstood topic ... Essential reading.”—David McLellan, New Statesman

“Refreshingly free from dictatorial intellectualism ... An exciting scholar.”—Radical Philosophy

“Unexpected popular relevance today when a whole new generation is beginning to ask fundamental questions about man’s relationship to nature.”—New Society