surpluses for
exploiting classes by making supply of the physiological necessities of
life to the exploited classes conditional upon
their producing those
surpluses. Not only do exploited classes produce the physiological and
derivative material necessities of life for
society , but they are
denied the fruits of their labor unless they supply the bosses, the
ruling classes with super fruits.
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[Marxism-Thaxis] Locus of material necessity in human society and history
Charles Brown
Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:01:36 -0800
This is a reworking and expansion of a thesis I have been
developing on Thaxis
Charles
Materialism, Necessity and Freedom: Rehearsal of the Fundamentals of Marxism
By the
_Manifesto of the Communist Party_ every
Marxist knows the A,B,C's of historical materialism or the materialist
conception of
history. The history of hitherto existing society, since the breaking
up of the
ancient communes, is a history of class struggles between oppressor and
oppressed.
Classes are groups that associate in a division of labor to produce
their material
means of existence. Why are class struggles fundamental in determining
the whole of society's laws and rules, it's
history and culture, the
"super-structure" ?
Because exploited classes are coerced into producing
surpluses for
exploiting classes by making supply of the physiological necessities of
life to the exploited classes conditional upon
their producing those
surpluses. Not only do exploited classes produce the physiological and
derivative material necessities of life for
society , but they are
denied the fruits of their labor unless they supply the bosses, the
ruling classes with super fruits.
Ruling class coerce this exploitation by
control of the state power or special
repressive apparatus
In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels implied this
elementary
anthropological or "human natural" rationale for this conception of
class relations determining substantially
the shape of society as a
whole. In a section titled
"History: Fundamental Conditions, they say:
"*life involves before everything else eating and
drinking,
a habitation, clothing and many other things. The first
historical
act is thus the production of material life itself. And
indeed this
is an historical act, a fundamental condition of all
history, which
today, as thousands of years ago, must daily and hourly
be
fulfilled merely in order to sustain human life."
Production and economic classes are the starting point of
Marxist analysis
of human society because human life, like all plant and animal life
must fulfill
biological needs to exist as life at all. It is an appeal to biologic
(which I
support, all of the anti-vulgar materialist critiques to the contrary
notwithstanding,
but that's my other paper). Whatever humans do that is "higher" than
plants and
animals, we cannot do if we do not first fulfill or plant/animal like
needs, physiological necessities.
Marx and Engels define scientific analysis as
tracing the materially or objectively _necessary_ connections in a
phenomenon. Thus, the scientific understanding
of human society must be based in the materially
necessary connections of human society. Fulfillment
of physiological or biological requirments are
the materially necessary "connections" for
humans.
These biological necessary connections exist
in all human societies. But it is only in'
class divided society that , as said above,
surpluses are extorted from exploited classes
by ruling classes by employment and threat of
deployment of the
forces of destruction and violenced, standing bodies of armed
men , against the exploited
and ruled classes less
they disgorge the surplus fruits of their labor to
the ruling classes.
For not only is supply of food, shelter, air
etc. biologically and materially necessary
for living. The _absence_ of being killed or
bodily harmed by armed men is materially necessary
to live. Thus, the mode of destruction is as central
to the necessary connections of human society as
the mode of production. The mode of destruction as
critical in ruling class coercion and extortion
of the ruled classes is a mode of necessity in
human society and history.
Thus the mode of necessity in human society
consists in both the mode of production and
the mode of destruction.
On Materialism ( speaking of Mao),
there are two levels of
the relationship between
thought and being:
"economics" and "physics".
While society remains in
the Realm (or kingdom) of Necessity ,
society during its class divided history,
ruling classes control
masses by conditioning
fulfillment of the _material_
needs of the exploited
classes on the exploited
classes ' producing surpluses
for the ruling , exploiting
classes. The materialism
(determinism by the material)
at this level derives from
the coercive use of conditional
provision of material needs.
In all societies, including
those in the Realm (kingdom of Freedom
( socialist, communist future
and ancient) , all people
must , of course, "obey"
the laws of physics,
chemistry, biology,
physiology, objective
reality etc. "physics", in
the general sense.
The "higher" (cultural, semiotic. super-structrual, social
conditioning traditions, "super-natural,
aesthetic, artistic etc.) human
activities are limited or negatively determined ( See Marshall Sahlins'
_Culture and Practical Reason_ on
biological limits of culture) by the
productive and destructive activities, the activities that produce biological
necessities or deprive human biological necessities (Althougn, in human
IDEAS, SYMBOLS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE,
because of the
arbitrary central definition of the symbol ("sign" in French)
there is non-necessary connection.
_Arbitrary_ connection
is the opposite of _necessary_ connection. This is the sense
in which superstructure is not
subject to scientific analysis the
way that infrastructure is. Idea systems do simulate
necessity as rules, such as
rules of grammar or
cultural rules, including state enforced laws
Also in formal logic, "necessary"
arises in
> _modus ponens_, modus tolens
or "if-then", if p, then q, q is a
necessary
> condition of p, i.e.
not q,not p. This is arbitrary
and abstract necessity. In the Realm
of Necessity, ( Marx and Engels
used the
> term "necessity" here precisely
to make the point I am making here)
> there is a science of human
conduct based on the things
that human must
> do, i.e. necessity. As Marx and Engels had
to explain to "the Germans" in
_The German
> Ideology_, humans have
physiological necessities. In
meeting these,
> there arise scientifically
discernable necessary patterns in their
behavior
To continue, This means that historical materialism starts with human
nature, our human natural species qualities, Feuerbach's "species-being
" This is Marx's point in the famous
passage in the Intro to the
Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy concerning social being
determining social consciousness
"At a certain stage of their
development, the material productive
forces of society come in conflict
with the existing relations of
production, or - what is but a
legal expression for the same thing
- with the property relations
within which they have been at
work hitherto. From forms of
development of the productive
forces these relations turn into
their fetters.
Then begins an epoch of social
revolution. With the change of
the economic foundation the
entire immense superstructure
is more or less rapidly transformed.
In considering such transformations
a distinction should always be
made between the material
transformation of the economic
conditions of production, which
can be determined with the precision
of natural science, and the legal,
political, religious, aesthetic or
philosophic - in short, ideological
forms in which men become
conscious of this conflict and fight
it out. Just as our opinion of an
individual is not based on what he
thinks of himself, so can we not
judge such a period of transformation
by its own consciousness; on the
contrary, this consciousness must
be explained rather from the
contradictions of material life,
from the existing conflict between
the social productive forces and
the relations of production. "
Preface of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
http://www.marxists.org/
The economic conditions may be
articulated "with the precision
of a natural science"
because in that sector of society biological
necessities or needs are met, and
as discussed above, thereby necessary
connections reside. Necessary connections
are the business of science.
Being determines consciousness, but intermitently
However, being determines
consciousness discontinuously.
("primarily and ultimately").
Meanwhile, in between time,
being and consciousness are
reciprocally determiining.
Being , in the form of class struggle,
determines consciousness in history.
However, the revolutions
which are the points of
determination or change
by class struggle are
intermittent and rare.
Most of the time consciousness
or ideology is not changing,
is not in a revolutionary
state of transformation.
Most of the time society is
in a status quo, a relative
equilibrium , is not changing
fundamentally.
This is somewhat analogous
to the punctuated equilibrium
of Stephen Jay Gould in natural
history, with the punctuations
being the revolutions when being
determines, asserts itself, like the
roof falling in periodically asserts
the law of gravity, when
contradictions reach a crisis.
It is the long equilibria that
cause the confusion and make
people think that consciousness
has determined being in history's
revolutionary changes,
or the idealist error.
Also, there is a sense in which
consciousness as a system of
ideas does determine people's
conduct. When an idea grips
the masses , it becomes a material
force; and lots of ideas grip the
masses. In fact , the masses
only act based on ideas that
grip them. What revolutions do
is change the system of ideas
that determines peoples' conduct.
And only class struggles change
systems of ideas or ideologies.
This is the fundamental sense
of being determines consciousness
or part of the theory of historical materialism.
As Marx says
"...so can we not
judge such a period of transformation
by its own consciousness; on the
contrary, this consciousness must
be explained rather from the
contradictions of material life,
from the existing conflict between
the social productive forces and
the relations of production. " "
In big historical changes,
Necessity is the mother of invention.
, the mother of revolution. The
necessary connections in economy and
class structure periodically, though
rarely , break through to "invent" a new superstructure
revolutionary ideas. Necessity is the mother of
invention, new ideas.
Ideology is the stabilizer of convention.
Ideologies are formal logics, based
on the principle of identity as their
first principle. Formal
logics are not "self-changing", they
abdure contradictions ( non-identity)
tend to sustain convention, avoid
invention of new principles. This
is why we don't think our way to
revolution. This is why dialectical
logic , with contradiction as its
first principle, is rooted in class
struggle , reflecting real or
material contradictions.
The Second Thesis on Feuerbach -
the test of theory is practice
Thus, the most practically
reasonable and rational course
is for the working class of our
era to overthrow capitalism and
establish socialism. This would
be the optimum for the class
self-interest of the working class ,
collectively and individually
in its billions of people. Yet, we
are in a lag time, the long lag
time of the "equilibrium" before
the punctuation of revolution.
Irrational ideas, from the
standpoint of the working class,ideas of many types
compete with the rational idea
of revolutionary class struggle
for gripping the working masses.
False consciousness, capitalist ideology is
determining being, keeping it
stuck in capitalist relations of production.
Do any of the fancy Marxist theories
which interrogate the principle
of being determines consciousness
have solutions to the riddles of the
irrational, anti-class self-interest
ideologies, systems of ideas and
images which are gripping the
masses and blinding them to
their historic revolutionary mission ?
That is a question on c
onsciousness for today's challengers to materialism who also claim to
be Marxist in some sense.
An even more fundamental
understanding of consciousness
must come through an augmented
Marxist feminism. As the historically
constituted class of oppressed
and exploited reproductive or c
aring laborers, the creators of
subjects en masse, women have
been the uncredited makers of
consiousness in history. This is
not just in childrearing , although that is obviously important, but in all
caring labor which is critical in
shaping and repairing the self.
This includes housework, for the
house or the home is that shelter
where the adult self is itself away
from work in the capitalist daily
geography of the person.Thus,
women's liberation and recovery
of women's history is fundamental
to the science of consciousness.
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/
(Here is a reiteration of the above thesis)
Materialism, Necessity and Freedom: Rehearsal of the Fundamentals of Marxism
A three act play with beginning,
middle and end, and non-dogmatic
improvisation. Several vulgar parts
Double materialist
determination; there are two
levels of
determination, in materialism
attitude toward
the relationship between
thought and being:
1)"economics" and 2) "physics".
1)"economics"
While society remains in
the Realm of Necessity ,
ruling classes control
masses by conditioning
fulfillment of the _material_
needs of the exploited
classes on the exploited
classes ' producing surpluses
for the ruling , exploiting
classes. The materialism
(determinism by the material)
at this level derives from
the coercive use of conditional
provision of material needs.
2) "physics"
In all societies, including
those in the Realm of Freedom
( socialist, communist future
and ancient) , all people
must , of course, "obey"
the laws of physics,
chemistry, biology,
physiology, objective
reality etc. "physics", in
the general sense.
The first level above is based
in the specific biological necessities
of the second level.
There is a third level of
materialist determination in
the Marxist thesis. It is also
economic. Marx and Engels
(Engels and Marx) claim that
history is a history of
class struggles. The
answer to the question
"Why is history a history of
class struggles ?" is the
philosophy of historical
materialism. Why is it that
economic material relationship
of exploiting and exploited
classes causes the changes
which are called "history" ? The
alternatives at the time Marx wrote
the
thesis were especially Great Men in
state and economic power
and Big Ideas as in Philosophies
of Great Men.
Marx in wanting to take a scientific
approach to the question, looked to
necessity upon the theory that science
details necessary connections between
things. There is no necessity as strict in
the realms of ideas or Great Men as
the necessity of biology, and by extension
the area of economics of material
production of minimal life sustaining
necessities or Being or Existence
There still must be made an
argument as to why and what
changes by class struggle
determination in the sense that
history is a history of class
struggles. What changes through
the course of history ?
If it were the structure of
the relationship between
classes, then what about
tautology ?
So, Big Ideas (or Consciousness)
and Great
Men _types_
change as the change
that is history.
However, Being determines
consciousness
intermittently, rarely in terms
of the total time of the many
generations of people. Most
generations don't experience
a fundamental or revolutionary
change.
And so on the rare, intermittent
determinism of the structure of
ideas by the Realm proper of
Necessity:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/
Although biology only limits
us human beings because
we have
culture (super-natures and natures )
this contradiction between biology
and culture is still where it
is at in generating universals
or big
generals.
Being determines consciousness
is still a focal rule of thumb (guide
to action) for building a universal,
real common interests among huge
numbers of people, the masses.
My first post-Marx development
of species-being is to derive women's
liberation organically from
historical materialism's premises,
as Marx and
Engels derive workers' liberation
from those species-being historical
premises. It is a correction of
classical Marxism, but based on Marxsim's
own premises. In ways its
too vulgar for pomos and fancy marxists.
However, the pomos and
their old cousins, Frankfurt
school, Gramsci,
exitentialists, et al. all the fancy
marxists have taught us something:
being determines consciousness
discontinuously, intermittmently, rarely.
Through most of the actual
time of history ( day-to-day life; quotidien), consciousness
and being are
reciprocally determining.
Only rarely, in revolutions,
primarily and
ultimately does being
utterly determine consciousness.
Today, that means that the
direct naked appeal to the working class'
class self-interest is inadequate
in itself-necessary but not sufficient
in the formal logical sense -to
inspire revolution. That appeal
cannot be
dropped - the vast majority
are working class, wage
laborers - but must be
complemented with appeals to other consciousness, other consciousness =
determined by being
(gender, for example) and
consciousness that is
determined more by consciousness.
Overall one wants to change
the world based on interpreting it,
changing
it through practical-critical activity,
a unity of theory and practice
still.
(to be continued)
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