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Start Over Creator Bartoš, Vít

3. K problému dialektiky přírody

Creator:
Bartoš, Vít
Format:
bez média and svazek
Type:
model:article and TEXT
Subject:
dialectics of nature, Friedrich Engels, biology, physics, adaptationism, and humanism
Language:
Czech
Description:
Th e aim of this article is to update some of Engels’s ideas on the topic of the dialectics of nature and to bring those ideas into the context of contemporary developments in the natural sciences (especially biology). Firstly, we examine the question of the very possibility of dialectics (dialectical processes) in nature because, at least since Lukács, there has been a signifi cant tradition denying the existence of dialectical processes in nature because nature has no acting, conscious subjects. We argue that dialectics is universally present not only in the actions of the subject, which is an old-fashioned relic of anthropomorphism, but in nature itself. Secondly, we identify some basic problems in Engels’s theory of nature as it is described in his Dialectics of Nature. We are especially interested in Engels’s employment of dialectics as a general method of investigating the nature of physical and biological reality. We fi nd that some principles of dialectics (as Engels understands them) are not consistent with the fundamental principles of physics, such as the second law of thermodynamics. In addition, in the domain of biology it would seem quite diffi cult to make Engels’s Lamarckian concept of evolution consistent with his own concept of dialectics, not to mention with the paradigmatic Darwinian approach. Finally, we point out that there is a renaissance of dialectical thinking in modern biology that can be understood as a partial confi rmation of Engels’s intuitions regarding dialectics. Especially in the works of Richard Levins, Richard Lewontin, and Stephen J. Gould we can see how dialectics was applied in their disputes with genetic and environmental determinists and adaptationists.
Rights:
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ and policy:public

4. K problému marxistické ekologie

Creator:
Bartoš, Vít
Format:
bez média and svazek
Type:
model:article and TEXT
Subject:
second law of thermodynamics, compartmentation, alienation, ecology, capitalism, scaling, and space-time
Language:
Czech
Description:
This article argues that building an eco-socialist concept of sustainable development must be based on realistic understandings of natural processes and meaningful axiology. First, it focuses on the conflict between Malthus and Marx, which foreshadows modern debates between ecology and socialism. Malthus’s ideas are preferred because in the last instance his principles are logically and ontologically persuasive and empirically relevant. The second part attempts to develop a Marxist perspective on ecological thinking, connecting Marxist economics and thermodynamics using the work of Sergei Podolinsky. This unusual perspective leads to the general conclusion that the ultimate goal of human production is the most effective resistance to the second law of thermodynamics. From these considerations the article derives a norm (value) which states that such resistance should be the supreme goal of advanced civilization. Because life in general is the best counter-entropic barrier, it follows that humanity should strive to expand and develop life. The Marxist critiques of capitalism and of the history of class societies in general are based on the broad notion of “alienation”, which is understood by Marx himself as the opposite of “real life.” Therefore, alienation can be understood as a form of entropy. The biological term “compartmentation” is then used to compare the architecture of biological entities and social systems. Effective compartmentation prevents entropy. Therefore, the study of compartmentation in social entities (capitalism) may indicate where alienation might be structurally incorporated. The article argues that the problem in the last instance is the spatio-temporal scaling of social entities and that all eco-social problems ultimately lie in imperfect interconnection, spatio-temporal and energy scaling or continuity between social entities and between natural and social entities. The conclusion is that we need a completely different metabolic system that mediates the interaction of society and nature.
Rights:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and policy:public