Nature, History and the Dialectic of Negativity: The Category of Nature in Marx's Writings

The following dissertation examines Marxs conception of nature, including the relationship between that conception and his social theory, political philosophy, and critique of political economy. It offers an erudite defence of a novel interpretation of Marxs philosophy of nature while interrogating both historical and contemporary readings. The first portion of the interpretative thesis considers his early philosophical development, especially in relation to Hegel, Feuerbach, and Bauer. It defends the interpretation that, during this phase in his intellectual development, Marx developed his materialist conception of history in conjunction with an historical conception of nature and the human relation to it. Part I demonstrates that this integral connection between philosophy of nature and his vision of human nature is a lasting feature of his thought, one which links his ontology to his anthropology even in his later writings. The second part of the dissertation examines Marxs middle and late writings, and it analyzes the theory of the metabolism which he elaborated during those periods in his intellectual development. Part II of the dissertation identifies important, but as of yet unacknowledged, points of connection between his theory of the metabolism and his description of precapitalist social life, account of the history of primitive accumulation, analysis of the formation of capitalist relations, demystification of political economy, growing ecological awareness, and philosophical conception of the dialectic of negativity. The final portion of the paper assumes the form of an anti-critique. It defends the interpretation that, in both the early and late writings, Marxs conception of nature is not susceptible to Frankfurt critiques of instrumental rationality and the ecological domination associated with it. While criticizing the readings offered by Schmidt and Marcuse, the final chapters of the dissertation elaborate a wholly original and deeply insightful interpretation of Marxs conception of the relationship between natural necessity and human freedom.