On the Theoretical Issues and Contributions of Ecological Marxism
Ecological Marxism is one of the latest schools of Marxism abroad that emerged after the 1970s. Its representatives include Ben Agger, Lewis, Foster, O'Connor in North America and Pepper, Hughes, Goetz, Grundman, Benton and others in Europe. They use ecological criticism as a starting point to launch ecological criticism, technological criticism and cultural criticism of contemporary capitalist society, forming a systematic ecological theory and modernity theory, and opening up the contemporary perspective of historical materialism. This article intends to discuss the theoretical issues of ecological Marxism and expound its theoretical contribution and contemporary value.
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In response to the Western green theory's view that historical materialism is "anthropocentrism" and "technological determinism" and does not recognize the "limits of nature". It accuses historical materialism of overemphasizing production and ignoring the scarcity and finiteness of natural resources, and then opposes historical materialism to the ecological way of thinking. Ecological Marxist theorists point out that historical materialism and the ecological way of thinking are not only not in opposition, but also have an ecological perspective that is more advantageous than Western green theory. Therefore, they respond to the challenges and criticisms of Western green theory to historical materialism, either by carrying out ecological reconstruction of historical materialism, or directly expounding the ecological implications of historical materialism.
In response to the criticism of Western green theory that historical materialism is "anthropocentrism" and "technocentrism", that it does not recognize the "limits of nature", and that historical materialism and ecology are in opposition, Hughes, Grundman and others pointed out that the Marxist position is indeed anthropocentric, but this anthropocentrism is not a narrow recognition of the instrumental value of nature, but a broad anthropocentrism that includes an aesthetic and moral perspective on nature. "'Broad' anthropocentrism advocates that the value of non-perceptual nature is based on its contribution to the value of human life, but it is different from narrow anthropocentrism in that it does not simply view this contribution from an instrumental perspective." [1] At the same time, Benton and Grundman also pointed out that Marx did follow the Western Enlightenment tradition's view of "controlling nature", but Marx also negated and transcended it, because Marx gave the so-called "dominance of nature" a new connotation, because what he meant by "dominance of nature" was not the absolute control of nature as modern Enlightenment thinkers said, but conscious control under the premise of mastering the laws of nature, which is essentially "controlling nature" under the premise of "adapting to nature". Grundman even linked Marx's concept of "controlling nature" with communism. In his view, the ecological crisis is not caused by controlling nature, but by the wrong control of nature. Only in a communist society can human beings successfully control nature and achieve harmonious development between human beings and nature. Regarding the Western green theory's criticism of the view that historical materialism does not recognize the "limits of nature", Grundman and Hughes pointed out that the mistake of this view is that it only attributes ecological problems to the "limits of nature" problem, and fails to see the many real factors that cause ecological problems such as environmental pollution and the depletion of natural resources, which is not conducive to correctly understanding and solving ecological problems. In fact, when examining ecological problems, Marx always insisted on combining the limits of nature with natural factors and social factors. This is where Marxism is superior to Western green theory.
O'Connor and Agger expounded the ecological perspective of historical materialism by reconstructing historical materialism. O'Connor emphasized that the historical materialism of Marx and Engels recognized that "human history and the history of nature are undoubtedly in a dialectical interactive relationship; they recognized the anti-ecological nature of capitalism and realized the necessity of constructing a theory that can clearly explain the contradictory relationship between exchange value and use value; at least it can be said that they have a potential theoretical perspective of ecological socialism." [2] The problem is how to explore this potential ecological perspective of historical materialism. O'Connor proposed a cultural materialism by constructing the cultural and natural dimensions of historical materialism. In his view, productivity, production relations and labor as the medium of interaction between man and nature are inevitably influenced by natural ecosystems and cultural factors at the same time, which means that the relationship between them cannot be a technical relationship of determination and being determined. This means that it is necessary to study the ecological relationship between them and nature and the cultural traditions behind productivity and production relations. Only by establishing the cultural and natural dimensions of historical materialism can we truly avoid the mistakes of technological determinism and open up the ecological perspective of historical materialism.
Unlike O'Connor, Ben Agger opened up the ecological perspective of historical materialism by reconstructing the crisis theory of historical materialism. In his view, the manifestation of the basic contradiction of contemporary capitalism has shifted from the economic crisis of Marx's time to the ecological crisis, which means that historical materialism should rebuild the crisis theory according to the changes in the conditions of the times, because "historical changes have made the original crisis theory that only belongs to the industrial capitalist production field ineffective. Today, the trend of the crisis has shifted to the consumption field, that is, the ecological crisis has replaced the economic crisis." [3] In other words, the changes in the conditions of the times require the construction of a Marxist ecological crisis theory, and ultimately call for the emergence of ecological Marxist theory. For the above reasons, on the one hand, ecological Marxism adheres to Marx's theory of the internal contradictions of capitalism and analyzes the inevitable connection between this internal contradiction and the ecological crisis of contemporary capitalist society.
"The reason why ecological Marxism is Marxist is precisely because it seeks the reasons for wasteful industrial production from the expansionary power of capitalism. It does not ignore the class structure." [4]
On the other hand, ecological Marxism emphasizes the role of the transformation of personal values in utilizing the ecological crisis to achieve the liberation of the working class. In Agger's view, the root causes of the ecological crisis mainly lie in the following two aspects: First, the nature of capitalism's pursuit of profit makes it inevitable to continuously expand the contradiction between production and the limited nature of the ecosystem, leading to increasingly serious environmental problems. Second, under the manipulation of people's constant pursuit of consumption by advertisements that serve the pursuit of profit by capital, and in order to escape alienated labor, people are emotionally attached to alienated consumption, which further intensifies environmental problems. Agger emphasized that the above two crisis theories should be combined. On the one hand, we should focus on the transformation of the power relations of the capitalist state, so that it will continue to move towards "decentralization" and "de-bureaucratization"; on the other hand, we should focus on the ecological criticism of capitalist society, revealing that capitalist production is constrained by the limited nature of the ecosystem, and its promise to continuously provide goods is unattainable, forming a "dialectic of shattered expectations", forcing people to rethink their own way of life and values, establish a correct view of needs, consumption, labor and happiness, and lead the ecological movement to radical class change through the transformation of state power relations and the reshaping of individual values. It is possible to establish an ecological socialist society.
Foster and Pepper directly expounded the ecological perspective and ecological connotation of historical materialism. Foster called materialism "ecological materialism" and divided materialism into two types: determinism and indeterminism. Through the investigation of the development history of Marx's thought, he pointed out that Marx inherited the materialism tradition of Epicureanism in ancient Greece and the materialism of modern organicism. Therefore, Marx's materialism contains a lot of ecological ideas. This is reflected in the following four aspects. Specifically:
First, in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Marx elaborated on the organic connection between human beings and nature, especially emphasized the social and historical characteristics of nature, and stressed that the transformation and utilization of nature is based on the objective understanding of natural history and human history;
Second, in the Theses on Feuerbach, Marx pointed out through reflection and criticism of Feuerbach's materialism that materialism certainly recognizes the priority of nature in ontology, but Marx emphasized that his materialism focuses on the study of the interaction between human beings and nature and the process of material transformation, which is the "nature" that enters into human practical activities;
Third, in The German Ideology, Marx and Engels repeatedly emphasized that nature and the material world are the premise of the existence and development of human society, criticized Feuerbach for severing the organic connection between nature and human society, and emphasized the organic connection formed between human beings and nature in practice. In the Communist Manifesto, while affirming the great productivity and material civilization created by the bourgeoisie, Marx and Engels also criticized the capitalist system for its destruction of the environment and the separation and opposition between urban and rural areas, and regarded communist society as a society that transcends the alienation of nature and ecological contradictions in capitalist society and realizes the sustainable development of mankind and nature;
Fourth, in Capital, Marx, through reflection on modern science and philosophy, clearly proposed that the inevitable outcome of the operation of the capitalist system and mode of production is to cause a "rupture in the material transformation relationship" between human society and nature, thus revealing the anti-ecological nature of capitalist society. In Marx's view, the concept of "material transformation" refers to the exchange of materials and energy between human society and nature in an ecological sense; in a sociological sense, it means that the exchange of materials and energy is always carried out under certain social organizations and social conditions. Marx's assertion on the "rupture in material transformation" actually reflects the ecological consequences and anti-ecological nature of the capitalist system and mode of production, which is specifically reflected in the urban-rural opposition caused by capitalist industrialization, the predatory use of land and resources, and the contradictions and conflicts between capitalist production and the needs of future generations. It was on the basis of exposing the ecological consequences of the capitalist system and mode of production that Marx put forward his basic vision for the future society.
On the one hand, Marx emphasized the necessity and importance of breaking the capitalist system and mode of production. On the other hand, he emphasized that if the future society wants to achieve sustainable development of the relationship between humans and nature, it must use scientific methods to adjust the material transformation relationship between human society and nature. Therefore, Marx's vision for the future society is always consistent with his ideal of pursuing ecological sustainability.
Pepper specifically expounded the ecological perspective of historical materialism from four aspects. First, the ecological implications of the method of historical materialism in analyzing history. Pepper pointed out that the theory of historical materialism opposes the view of historical progress based solely on ideas, takes social material life as the logical starting point of its theory, insists that economic motivation is the determining factor of historical development, and believes that the driving force of social change lies in the social mode of production. This means that it is emphasized that we cannot talk about the relationship between man and nature in an abstract way like eco-centrists do, and only prefer to solve the ecological crisis through the change of values, but must also change the economic foundation of society. Second, Marxism regards capitalist production relations and production methods and their global expansion as the root cause of environmental destruction. Therefore, the root cause of the ecological crisis should not be attributed to personal greed, but should be found by analyzing the social mode of production. Third, Marx's dialectics emphasizes the existence of a dialectical relationship between man and nature, pointing out that Marx is actually an organicist and monist, because Marx's social-natural dialectics emphasizes the inseparability of society and nature and their interaction. This dialectic is a scientific method to solve the relationship between society and nature. Fourth, Marx not only criticized the alienation of nature caused by the capitalist system, but also expounded an ecological view of nature and morality. Pepper pointed out that Marx opposed both the techno centrism that viewed nature purely from the perspective of instrumental value and the ecocentrism that viewed nature from the perspective of intrinsic value. Instead, he regarded "nature" as a social category, that is, a certain mode of production determines how we interpret and view nature. The capitalist system and its mode of production not only caused the urban-rural opposition and the urban plunder of rural resources, but also caused the alienation of nature, which determined that overcoming alienation meant that the alienated social system must be changed. Based on the above understanding, Pepper pointed out that historical materialism does oppose ecocentrism and clearly advocates anthropocentrism, but Marxism is beneficial to ecocentrism. This benefit is mainly reflected in the following: Marx not only always linked the emergence of ecological problems with the specific cultural and economic characteristics of a particular society, emphasizing that the emergence of contemporary ecological problems originated from capitalist industrialization, urbanization and related economic exploitation, but also emphasized that when observing and solving ecological problems, we should not ignore the importance of changes in the material organization of society, nor should we ignore the global expansion of the capitalist system, because it is the global expansion of the capitalist system that has led to environmental problems that threaten the continued survival of mankind.
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It is a common point among ecological Marxist theorists to identify the capitalist system and mode of production as the root cause of the contemporary ecological crisis. In their view, the contradiction between productivity, production relations and production conditions in capitalist society and the profit-seeking nature of capital are the fundamental causes of the contemporary ecological crisis. Therefore, they call their ecology "anti-capitalist ecology" and propose that the ecological crisis can only be truly resolved by changing the capitalist system and mode of production.
It was O'Connor who clearly put forward the contradiction between capitalist productivity, production relations and production conditions. He called this contradiction the "second contradiction" of capitalist society. In his view, the development of the two basic contradictions revealed by Marx will lead to capitalist economic crises characterized by insufficient demand, while the development of the "second contradiction" will lead to ecological crises characterized by insufficient production. Therefore, ecological crises are the inevitable result of the development of the internal contradictions of capitalist society. The "production conditions" mentioned by O'Connor here include three aspects: the first refers to the labor force of workers, which is unique to capitalist society. Because only in capitalist society is labor exchanged and sold as a commodity, the price of labor depends not only on productivity and efficiency, but also on class struggle, social movements, and the interaction between economy, politics and society; the second refers to the public conditions necessary for social production, such as transportation facilities, education, urban and community capital, etc. This condition depends not only on market demand, but also on the struggle between different interest groups in capitalist society and urban movements; the third refers to the natural conditions necessary for capitalist production. In fact, different natural conditions will greatly affect capitalist production and profits.
O'Connor pointed out that although Marx paid attention to the problem of capitalist production conditions, because he lived in the early stage of capitalist development, labor, land and natural resources were still very abundant. Therefore, Marx focused on discussing the supply of labor from the perspective of economics, and rarely discussed the natural conditions on which capitalist production depends. As ecological issues have become the central issue of everyone's attention, it is necessary to explore the natural conditions on which capitalist production depends, especially the external natural conditions faced by capitalist production, such as space and urban issues. Therefore, in O'Connor's view, "production conditions" not only include production relations related to productivity, but also include external natural conditions, environment and urban issues. Through this expansion of the extension of "production conditions", O'Connor shifted the focus of theoretical analysis from Marx's main focus on analyzing the contradictory movement between productivity and production relations to the analysis of the contradictory movement between capitalist productivity, production relations and production conditions. He called this contradiction "the second contradiction of capitalist society", and it is this contradiction that determines the inevitability of the occurrence of ecological crisis in capitalist society. In O'Connor's view, the ecological crisis is the inevitable result of capital's pursuit of profits and the operation of the capitalist mode of production. This is because: first, the nature of capital's pursuit determines that capital must continue to expand capitalist reproduction, which will inevitably conflict with the finiteness of nature. The result of the movement of contradictions is reflected in the ecological crisis; second, the movement of the second contradiction of capitalism will lead to the continuous rise of production costs, thus leading to the crisis of capitalist production. On the one hand, the rise in costs is rooted in the increase in productivity and the increase in the exploitation of natural resources, which means the increase of capitalist accumulation and the rise of production costs. On the other hand, the new social movement with labor movement, environmental movement and women's movement as the main content has further increased the cost of capital governance of environmental problems. As a result, capitalist production is bound to be difficult to carry out sustainably. Third, the imbalance and joint development of capitalism will inevitably lead to the expansion and development of the ecological crisis in a global direction.
Unlike O'Connor, who reveals the inevitability of the occurrence of ecological crisis from the movement of the internal contradictions of capitalism, Foster, Ben Agger, and Gorz focus on analyzing the inherent nature of capital and the characteristics of the capitalist mode of production to reveal the inevitability of the occurrence of ecological crisis under the capitalist system. In their view, the inherent nature of capital is the pursuit of profit, and its operation follows the "economic rationality" that is opposite to the "ecological rationality". If ecological rationality is the value rationality with the purpose of protecting the ecology, then economic rationality is the instrumental rationality with the purpose of pursuing profit. Ecological rationality follows the ecological law and strives for the value principle of "enough is enough", while economic rationality always adheres to the value principle of maximum productivity, maximum consumption and "water is never enough". Therefore, there is an essential contradiction and conflict between capital and the capitalist mode of production associated with capital and ecology.
“It is impossible to maintain the exponential growth of world industrial output under the current system without causing an overall ecological disaster. In fact, we have already exceeded certain ecological limits.” [5]
Moreover, driven by the profit motive, the capitalist mode of production and its operating logic determine that production has a tendency to expand and concentrate, and will inevitably promote consumerist cultural values and ways of life that are compatible with it, which will inevitably conflict with the ecology and manifest as an ever-intensifying ecological crisis. Through the above analysis, they concluded that the capitalist system and mode of production are essentially anti-ecological.
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Technological criticism and cultural value criticism are one of the theoretical themes of ecological Marxism. They oppose the technological pessimism held by Eco-centrists. Eco-centrists regard economic growth, scientific and technological progress and application as the root causes of ecological crises. The inevitable logic of their theory is to place the hope of solving the ecological crisis on restricting economic growth, scientific and technological progress and application. This is actually to oppose the construction of ecological civilization to economic growth, scientific and technological progress and application. Ecological Marxist theorists criticize the fundamental problem of ecocentrists' claims that they have not found the root causes of the ecological crisis, oppose ecological civilization to human civilization, and require humans to return to the natural state of survival. This is a theoretical misunderstanding of the essence of ecological civilization and is difficult to implement in practice. In the view of ecological Marxist theorists, science and technology itself is neither right nor wrong. The problem lies in the social production mode and cultural values that carry the application of science and technology. The key to the problem is not to restrict economic growth and technological progress and application, but to change the production mode and values based on capital. Therefore, they analyze the inevitability of irrational use of technology and ecological crisis under the capitalist technology application and cultural values.
Ecological Marxist theorists believe that science and technology have dual economic and socio-political functions in contemporary capitalist society. They mainly explain the inevitability of irrational use of technology and ecological crisis from the perspective of analyzing the capitalist mode of production and the values that govern the use of technology. From the perspective of the capitalist mode of production, technological progress and application can greatly improve labor productivity, reduce socially necessary labor time and raw material costs, develop new consumer goods to expand the consumer market, and thus meet the needs of capital in pursuit of profits. Although technological innovation and application have the function of increasing raw material consumption, due to the inherent purpose of capital in pursuit of profits, it is determined that under the capitalist mode of production, technology application cannot be carried out according to ecological principles. Although nature is the basis and starting point for the conduct and development of capitalist production, it is not the purpose and destination of capitalist production. Therefore, the inevitable result of technological innovation and application under the capitalist mode of production is to increase the exploitation of nature. "It is meaningless to limit ourselves to whether we can develop more efficient technology within the existing production framework. This is like 'upgrading' our entire production system along with irrationality, waste and exploitation." [6] All this means that under the capitalist mode of production, nature cannot be truly protected. The so-called protection of the ecological environment by contemporary capitalist enterprises is either to maintain their production conditions or to obtain greater profits through green packaging. It is not the construction of ecological civilization in the true sense.
From the perspective of capitalist values, capital is based on the profit motive and advocates the consumerist value of "the more the better". The basic characteristics of consumerist values are "encouraging everyone to put consumption activities at the center of their daily attention, while strengthening the experience of dissatisfaction at every level of consumption obtained". [7] Under the dominance of this value system, the relationship between man and nature and between man and man is reduced to the relationship of possession and money. The amount of goods and wealth possessed is regarded as a sign of whether a person is successful. Consumption is no longer aimed at satisfying people's needs, but a symbolic and conspicuous consumption that shows success or failure and social status. At the same time, capital will inevitably continue to expand its production scale for profit, which objectively requires the promotion and advocacy of consumerist cultural values and ways of life, which ultimately leads to false needs and alienated consumption that are irrelevant to people's real needs, and then places the experience of happiness and freedom on consumption activities. Regarding the internal connection between consumerist values and ways of life and the ecological crisis, ecological Marxist theorists have focused on analyzing from three aspects: First, the prevalence of consumerist values and ways of life has caused the problem of resource and energy shortage to become increasingly prominent. The "lack" mentioned here is not a "lack" in the true sense based on people's real needs, but a state artificially created by the capitalist production system for the purpose of pursuing profits. It has no essential connection with people's real needs. Its direction and content are actually determined by the direction of capital's pursuit of profits. Second, capital continues to expand its production system based on profit motives. Since its primary goal is to achieve economic growth, this inevitably makes its production waste management a problem and exceeds the limit that nature can bear, thus causing damage to the ecological environment and ecological crisis. Third, the cultural values of consumerism simplify the relationship between man and nature into an instrumental relationship of domination and being dominated, utilization and being utilized, and regard unsatisfied desires and eternal lack as the essential characteristics of human behavior, which leads to human excitement focusing on how to meet people's material needs by constantly improving the means of controlling nature, while ignoring the limit that nature can bear.
Since ecological Marxism points out that the capitalist system and mode of production, capitalist technology use and cultural values are the root causes of the contemporary ecological crisis, breaking the capitalist system and realizing the transformation of cultural values is the inevitable logic of its theoretical development, which constitutes their ecological political philosophy. Unlike ecocentrism and modern anthropocentrism, which are confined to the transformation of ecological values in discussing ecological governance, ecological Marxism insists that only by breaking the capitalist system and mode of production can the transformation of ecological values be meaningful. In their view, it is impossible to build an ecological civilization under the capitalist system and mode of production, and it is meaningless to talk about the transformation of ecological values under the capitalist system.
The problem with Western ecocentrism, modern anthropocentrism and environmentalism lies precisely here. They either require humans to return to the natural living state or pursue the sustainable development of the capitalist economy. This is due to their misunderstanding of the root causes of the ecological crisis and the essence of ecological civilization. Therefore, ecological Marxist theorists specifically discuss their ecological political philosophy. Regarding how to break the capitalist system and its global power relations, they put forward the theoretical propositions of "decentralization" and "debureaucratization". In their view, contemporary ecological problems are rooted in capital and its global expansion, which means that the governance of ecological problems requires an organic combination of "local action" and "global vision". The so-called "local action" means that each nation-state and community should carry out ecological protection in their respective regions; the so-called "global vision" means that each nation-state and community should recognize that the emergence of ecological problems in their region is essentially and intrinsically related to capital and global expansion, as well as the power relations of capital. Only by organically combining the two can we truly solve ecological governance problems and promote the construction of ecological civilization.
"Most ecological problems and those socio-economic problems that are both the cause and the result of ecological problems cannot be solved at the local level alone. ... It is necessary to position various local countermeasures under the premise of universal, national and international issues." [8]
As for how to transform the capitalist system and its global power relations, ecological Marxist theorists have put forward the theoretical proposition of "de-bureaucratization" and "decentralization". This proposition aims to eliminate "alienated consumption" and enable workers to experience happiness and freedom from creative labor and management rather than alienated consumption. "De-bureaucratization" and "decentralization" means breaking the highly centralized nature of the capitalist production system and making people the masters of production and management. Leading the ecological movement to a radical class movement, and ultimately breaking the capitalist system and mode of production, and establishing an ecological socialist society, is not only the theoretical destination of ecological Marxism, but also the foundation and premise for the construction of ecological civilization. On this basis, ecological Marxist theorists further elaborated on the "anthropocentric ecological values" they advocated. In their view, the anthropocentric values are rooted in the Western philosophical and cultural tradition. The reason why it has played a role in strengthening the ecological crisis is not that there is anything wrong with it itself, but that once it is combined with capital, it becomes "class-centrism" and "region-centrism", and becomes a tool for capital to pursue profits. Therefore, the key to the problem is not to abandon the anthropocentric values, but to restore their original meaning, that is, to truly base on the interests of mankind as a whole.
The position of ecological Marxism is "anthropocentric (although not in the sense of capitalist-technocentric) and humanistic. It rejects bioethics and the mystification of nature and any anti-humanism that these might produce, even though it values the human spirit and its needs, which are met in part by non-material interactions with other aspects of nature." [9] However, the anthropocentrism advocated by ecological Marxism is not based on the pursuit of profit by capital, but on the basis of meeting the basic survival needs of the poor and the long-term interests of the human collective. Therefore, the construction of ecological civilization is not only in conflict with economic growth and technological progress, but on the contrary, if economic growth and technological progress are excluded and people's basic survival needs cannot be met, people will seek survival by destroying the environment, and the construction of ecological civilization will lack a real and realistic foundation.
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The opening of the ecological perspective of historical materialism, the ecological critique of the capitalist system, the critique of the capitalist use of technology, the critique of consumerist cultural values, and the ecological political philosophy can be seen as the five major theoretical issues of ecological Marxism. Their exploration of these theoretical issues not only formed a systematic ecological theory, but also formed their contemporary capitalism theory and modernity theory. They not only made important theoretical contributions to the contemporary development of historical materialism theory, but also have important value for our theoretical research and construction practice of ecological civilization. Specifically reflected in:
First, as to whether the theory of historical materialism can be used to analyze modern problems including ecological problems, Western ecological thought and post-Marxist thought believe that the theory of historical materialism is a kind of productionism and technological optimism, which does not recognize the limits of nature. Therefore, historical materialism cannot really solve modern problems such as ecological crisis and the social effects of technology, and thus deny the contemporary value of the theory of historical materialism. Although the analytical Marxist theorist Cohen and the late Marxist theorist Harvey do not deny the contemporary value of the theory of historical materialism, they both believe that historical materialism did not consider the problem of ecological constraints when it was first established. The increasingly serious ecological constraints have posed a severe challenge to the core thesis of historical materialism. In his book "Self-ownership, Freedom and Equality", Cohen advocated that socialism should be argued from the perspective of moral philosophy under the condition of resource scarcity; in his works such as "Spaces of Hope" and "Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference", Harvey proposed that historical materialism lacks a geographical dimension through the investigation of the relationship between capital space production and capital accumulation, and that a historical-geographical materialism should be constructed to adapt to the new changes in contemporary capitalist society. Ecological Marxism explicitly opposes the above theoretical viewpoints, emphasizing that the theory of historical materialism is by no means productivism and technological determinism. They either emphasize that historical materialism is ecological materialism, or emphasize that historical materialism has a potential ecological perspective. The theory of historical materialism does not fail to consider the issue of the finiteness of nature. On the contrary, what Marx called communism emphasizes is the use of technology to transform nature under the premise of conforming to natural laws. These arguments have powerfully refuted the contemporary Western scholars' criticism of historical materialism, and clarified that the theory of historical materialism is still a scientific theoretical tool for analyzing contemporary social problems, laying the foundation and premise for highlighting the contemporaneity of the theory of historical materialism.
Second, ecological Marxism enriched and developed the theory of historical materialism. Specifically, they constructed a systematic ecological theory based on historical materialism, which greatly expanded the theoretical space of historical materialism. Since ecological problems were not prominent in the era of Marx and Engels, it was impossible for them to become the central issue of their theory, but this does not mean that Marx and Engels did not care about ecological problems. In fact, Marx and Engels revealed and criticized the ecological consequences of capital in works such as The Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology and Capital, and especially proposed the "Material Transformation Crack Theory". It is based on the relevant discussions of Marx and Engels, combined with contemporary human practice, and through the reinterpretation or reconstruction of the theory of historical materialism from the perspective of ecology, that a systematic ecological theory based on historical materialism was established, which not only highlights the contemporaneity of historical materialism, but also greatly expands the theoretical space of historical materialism.
Second, it enriched and developed the capitalist theory of historical materialism. The historical materialism theory of Marx and Engels mainly reveals the contradictory movement of the capitalist system and mode of production and the inevitability of its collapse from the two basic contradictions of productivity and production relations, economic base and superstructure. Ecological Marxist theorists not only affirm the internal contradiction of capitalism revealed by Marx and Engels, but also believe that this is the first contradiction of capitalist society, emphasizing that the development of this contradiction will lead to insufficient demand and cause the crisis of capitalist society. On this basis, they proposed that there is a second contradiction in capitalist society, namely the contradiction between the capitalist mode of production and its production conditions, and pointed out that the outcome of the development of this contradiction is that capitalist production is insufficient and unsustainable. It should be said that both of them analyzed the inevitable collapse of the capitalist system and mode of production from different perspectives, thus making the theory of historical materialism richer and more comprehensive, and more contemporary.
Third, although the historical materialism theory's criticism of the modernity of capital also involves consumption, culture, technology and other fields, it is mainly limited to the field of production. The theory of ecological Marxism not only further expands the criticism of capital to the fields of consumption, culture and technological application, but also specifically reveals and criticizes the phenomena of consumption alienation, cultural alienation and technological alienation in capital-based capitalist society, as well as the phenomenon of divergence between social development and human development. It puts forward the view that capital is the root cause of contemporary ecological problems, cultural alienation and technological alienation, and that only by breaking down capital and its global power relations can it be possible to overcome the overall alienation of society and people and realize human freedom and liberation, highlighting the contemporaneity of the theory of historical materialism.
Fourth, ecological Marxism is an ecological civilization theory based on historical materialism, which is of great value to the theoretical research and construction practice of ecological civilization in my country. This is because: First, from the perspective of my country's ecological civilization theory research, the current academic circles in my country mainly draw on the ecological civilization theory of Western natural value theory and human-centered theory, stick to the dimension of values, and entangle in the binary opposition of "natural value theory-human-centered theory" to carry out ecological civilization theory research. It should be said that realizing the transformation of human ecological values is necessary and important for solving the ecological crisis currently faced by mankind. However, on the one hand, due to the tendency of Western-centric ecological civilization theory based on Western natural value theory and human-centered theory from its value standpoint, it objectively plays a role in defending capital from shirking its responsibilities and obligations in global environmental governance issues. On the other hand, the essence of the ecological crisis lies in the capitalist mode of production based on capital and global power relations. At the same time, any kind of value is always attached to a certain mode of production and has an effect. In the case that the global power relations controlled by capital do not change, the so-called change of ecological values can only be a beautiful wish.
The value of ecological Marxism theory lies in that it organically combines the criticism of capital with the criticism of ecology, explores the real root of the ecological crisis and possible ways to solve the ecological crisis, and makes a preliminary exploration of the establishment of Marxist ecological civilization theory. It is a valuable ideological resource for us to establish the Chinese form of ecological civilization theory based on historical materialism.
Secondly, from the perspective of my country's ecological civilization construction practice, ecological Marxism theory shows that we should focus on solving two problems.
First, we should realize the transformation of development mode and lifestyle. While adhering to the development mode of connotation development, we should avoid people from moving towards a lifestyle that destroys the ecological environment for the purpose of commodity possession and commodity consumption.
Second, we should pursue environmental justice at the global level and safeguard China's development rights and environmental rights; at the regional level, we should establish a fair and reasonable system to coordinate the conflicting interests of different regions and different groups in the allocation and use of environmental resources and realize environmental justice.
To achieve the above goals, it is necessary to combine the institutional construction in the practice of ecological civilization with the construction of ecological values. From the perspective of the institutional dimension of ecological civilization theory, it essentially regards ecological problems as the concentrated embodiment of the contradictions in the interests of different countries, regions and groups of people in ecological resources. It requires that the theory of ecological civilization be externalized into laws and regulations that reasonably coordinate people's ecological interests, and as a bottom-line rule, truly play the role of regulating people's practical activities and behaviors, thereby promoting the sustainable development of my country's economy and society.
The task of ecological civilization theory research is to provide a scientific value basis for the formulation of fair and just ecological laws and regulations. From the perspective of ecological values, it mainly guides people to establish a correct view of nature, consumption and happiness through the construction and education of ecological values, and forms a self-conscious ecological consciousness by continuously improving people's value realm in ecological issues, and gradually internalizes this ecological consciousness into people's behavioral beliefs, and handles the relationship between man and nature in accordance with ecological laws and principles. Compared with the bottom-line rules and mandatory nature of the institutional dimension of ecological civilization theory, the dimension of ecological values has the characteristics of advocacy and non-mandatory nature, which fundamentally depends on the continuous improvement of people's ecological consciousness and value realm. Through the organic combination of the institutional dimension of ecological civilization theory and the ecological value dimension, the inherent unity of the development concept and realm theory in ecological civilization theory can be achieved.
Notes:
[1]Jonathan Hughes, Ecology and Historical Materialism Cambridge University Press, 2000, p32.
[2] James O’Connor, The Natural Reason: Studies in Ecological Marxism, Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2003, p. 6.
[3] Ben Agger, An Introduction to Western Marxism, Beijing: Renmin University of China, 1991, p. 486.
[4] Ben Agger, An Introduction to Western Marxism, p. 420.
[5] John Bellamy Foster, Ecological Crisis and Capitalism, Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2006, p. 38.
[6] John Bellamy Foster, The Ecological Crisis and Capitalism, p. 95.
[7]William Leiss, The Limits to Satisfaction, Mcgill—Queen's University Press, 1988, p100.
[8] James O’Connor, The Natural Reason: Studies in Ecological Marxism, Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2003, p. 433.
[9] David Pepper, Ecosocialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice, Jinan: Shandong University Press, 2005, p. 354.
(Author’s affiliation: Wang Yuchen, School of Philosophy, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law; Liu Ying, School of Philosophy, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)
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