CONSIDERATIONS ON MATERIALISM
Importance of the relationship between man and nature -
recognition of the "passive side" of consciousness - of the way in
which man is conditioned by its own physical structure and the
natural environment.
What is materialism? How are we to understand it?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE PRIORITY OF NATURE OVER MIND
EXPERIENCE CANNOT BE REDUCED TO EITHER A PRODUCTION
OF REALITY BY A SUBJECT OR TO A RECIPROCAL IMPLICATION OF SUBJECT
AND OBJECT.
THERE IS ALWAYS AN ELEMENT OF PASSIVITY IN EXPERIENCE: THE
EXTERNAL SITUATION WHICH WE DO NOT CREATE BUT WHICH IMPOSES
ITSELF UPON US. NOR CAN THIS EXTERNAL DATUM BE REABSORBED
BY MAKING IT A MERE NEGATIVE MOMENT IN THE ACTIVITY OF THE
SUBJECT, OR BY MAKING BOTH THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT MERE
MOMENTS, DISTINGUISHABLE ONLY IN ABSTRACTION, OF A SINGLE
EFFECTIVE REALITY CONSTITUTED BY EXPERIENCE.
FROM A MATERIALIST STANDPOINT, ONE MUST TAKE INTO ACCOUNT MAN'S
CONDITION IN THE WORLD AS IT IS ESTABLISHED BY THE RESULTS OF
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. THESE RESULTS ARE NOT MERE CONTENTS OF OUR
THOUGHTS OR OF OUR ACTIVITY BUT ARE A REFLECTION OF A REALITY
INDEPENDENT OF OUR THOUGHTS.
Materialism essentially is a critique of anthropocentrism and an
emphasis on the conditioning of man by nature.
Nature is not a prehistoric antecedent to human history but a reality that
still limits and conditions man who enters in. relationship with nature
actively, via labor, and passively, through heredity, through the influence of
the natural environment and his own biological characteristics over his body
and, therefore, over his intellectual, moral and psychological personality.
IF WE ARE STUDYING THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF SOCIETY WE MAY
LEGITIMATELY PASS OVER THE PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL LEVEL, IN AS
MUCH AS RELATIVE TO A GIVEN HISTORICAL PERIOD, IT IS CONSTANT.
WE CANNOT DENY THE CONDITION NATURE EXERCISES ON HUMANITY IN
GENERAL JUST BECAUSE THE CONDITIONING DOES NOT CONSPICUOUSLY
DIFFERENTIATE INDIVIDUAL EPOCHS OF HUMAN HISTORY.
MAN IS A BIOLOGICAL BEING ENDOWED WITH A CERTAIN, NOT UNLIMITED,
ADAPTABILITY TO HIS EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT, AND WITH CERTAIN
IMPULSES TOWARDS ACTIVITY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, SUBJECT TO
OLD AGE AND DEATH IS NOT AN ABSTRACT CONSTRUCTION BUT STILL EXISTS
IN EACH OF US.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT MAY CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE EXPERIECE PAIN,
PLEASURE AND OTHER REACTIONS; THERE IS HARDLY ANYTHING "PURELY
NATURAL" LEFT IN CONTEMPORARY MAN THAT HAS NOT BEEN ENRICHED AND
REMOULDED BY THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT. TO MAINTAIN
THAT, SINCE THE BIOLOGICAL IS ALWAYS PRESENTED TO US AS MEDIATED
BY THE SOCIAL, THE BIOLOGICAL IS NOTHING AND THE SOCIAL EVERYTHING,
WOULD BE IDEALIST SOPHISTRY.
From Sebastiano Timpanaro, On Materialism. London: Verso, 1976.
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM - MARX'S MATERIALIST CONCEPTION OF HISTORY
- DENIAL OF THE AUTONOMY AND PRIMACY OF IDEAS
Adapted from T. Bottomore et al, A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1983, pp. 324-325
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL LEVEL OVER THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC
AND CULTURAL LEVEL BOTH IN THE SENSE OF
A. CHRONOLOGICAL PRIORITY - THE LONG TIME BEFORE LIFE
APPEARED ON EARTH AND BETWEEN ORIGIN OF LIFE AND THE
ORIGIN OF MAN
B. CONDITIONING WHICH NATURE STILL EXERCISES ON MAN AND
WILL CONTINUE TO EXERCISE FOR THE FORESEABLE FUTURE.
THE EXTERNAL DATUM DOES NOT EXIST SOLELY AS A FUNCTION OF
THE ACTIVITY OF THE SUBJECT.
- METHODOLOGICAL COMMITMENT TO HISTORICAL RESEARCH (e.g., study of
MODES OF PRODUCTION rather than "SOCIETY."
- EMPHASIS ON THE DIALECTICAL RELATION BETWEEN HUMANITY AND NATURE THROUGH
LABOR AND THE UNAVOIDABLE TRANSFORMATION OF BOTH.
- AN ASYMMETRICAL VIEW OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANS AND NATURE; HUMANS ARE
ESSENTIALLY DEPENDENT ON NATURE BUT NATURE IS ESSENTIALLY INDEPENDENT OF HUMANS