Capital, Ecological And Freedom: Andre Gorz Ecological Marxist Thought

This dissertation tries to dig up the logic of the ecological Marxism thought while revolving around the axis of capital, ecology and freedom in order to grasp the logical thread of the develop and transition point of Andre Gorz's writings pursuing the academic value and practical meaning of gorzian ecological Marxism in the context of contemporary Marxism studies. This dissertation consists of six parts including introduction, four chapters and epilogue. The main ideas of every part are stated as follows:The introduction tries to solve three problems which are:1.why choosing Andre Gorz as my thesis? 2. The distinguishing features of Andre Gorz's thoughts; 3. The methodology and logic of this kind of study, The answer to why choosing Andre Gorz as my thesis should be sought in the practical history background of ecological Marxism, Why did the studies on Andre Gorz, whether in the west or in china, always appear fragmented and shallow in the movement of ecological Marxism. The postmodernism environment of the development of Marxism contributed to this outcome. Because the "orthodox" Gorz and his thought can not get the attention of the academic consumption, Gorz's orthodox spirit of Utopia is the very valuable parts we should conserve. The significance of Andre Gorz would surely be not only the spirit of utopia but also his updating of historical materialism in his political ecological methodology to some extent, and offered us a way of how to live our life and a political way of how to fulfill a real society. He reconstructed the Karl Marx's real society, real man and real work by applying his political economy critique of economy reason in the base of which offer a practical road and theoretical blueprint.Chapter 1:The existentialist anxiety:the academic resume of a traitor. What this chapter is about to solve is that what is the panorama of Andre Gorz's life and thought resume which is the preparation of the following four parts, I don't plan to go through all the details of Andre Gorz's thought at large which is an intellectual cartographer's work. I choose the key logic of his thought——by critique of capital, establishment of political ecology and reconstruction of real society and work——to arrange the academic resume. This chapter focuses on the existentialist background and origins of gorzian ecological Marxism, and in the light of history I focus on the political turning point of Andre Gorz after the May 1968 movement in which his thought was deeply affected by Sartre, Lefebvre and Castoriadis. Marxism undertook crisis in 1960s and 1970s meantime gorzian existentialist Marxism also undertook a turning point, his updating of Marxism insisted on the intense critique of traditional Marxism, on the other hand he resorted to a new methodology to find the growing soil of historical materialism. This motivation made him to call himself "post-Marxist". And after that crisis he went forward to political ecology which is a very logical outcome of him going to ecological Marxism.Chapter 2:political ecological:an ecologically harmonious way of life. What I am meant to solve is why Andre Gorz combines ecology and politics and how. Is this political ecology a political praxis way and political strategy or a transformed traditional Marxist method? In strategy for labor he used existentialist phenomenology and continued Marxist political economy critique to analyze the new needs in capitalism society. He concluded that the history of needs has obscured the real historical needs, because the movement of capital logic yielded out historical forms of and damages the ecological resources, and man himself was manipulated by capital logic. And this time Andre Gorz started to criticize in a quasi-ecological way. In the end of political revolution of May 1968, ecological movement emerged which made Andre Gorz firmly establish the thorough critique frame of political ecology. As for freedom and alienation, Andre Gorz tried hard to promote self-management to overcome the alienation not only in factory but also in society which is only achieved by decentralization and autonomy of workers. But contemporary international division undergoes sophisticated specialization and creates a decision maker which is superior to factory and at least at the same level of factory. The centralization of decision maker contradicts with decentralization and autonomy fundamentally. In the contradictions between technological division of production and the autonomy of worker, the unlimited development of capitalist technology imposed inevitable effects on human emancipation and the liberation of nature. Contemporary capital dominated nature and workers. Capital logic oppresses the freedom of man and moreover it negates the freedom of man. In this linking point of his thought, the deadlock of capital and freedom should and must be untied by a way of ecology. Andre Gorz inherited Marxist historical materialism method and political economy critique to develop a way of political ecology which is an ecologically harmonious way of life which denies capitalist industrial technology based upon the domination of individual and nature and tries to establish a post-industrial technique based upon "the cooperation of individuals and nature". This is the distinguishing part of gorzian ecological Marxism paradigm from O'Connor and Foster's paradigms.Chapter 3:reconstruction of work and society:the critique of imperialism of economic reason. What I am about to solve is in what way Gorz come to freedom and emancipation. Is this way concrete or abstract? Is Gorz only an abstract utopian as some critics called? Actually Gorz did not abort the critique of political economy of capitalism as some post-Marxist did? Although Gorz calls himself a post-Marxist, he is eager to update the critique of political economy of Marxism which is in Gorz's writings called reconstruction of work and society. The reason of why I confirm that Andre Gorz is not an abstract philosopher pondering in romantic utopia imagination is that he concretely concluded that society and politics could restore human nature by confinement of economic reason, restore social person's free moral option and thus restore real society.Chapter 4:the society of freedom of time:the utopia of freedom. Gorz's ecological Marxism set ultimately his feet on double imaginations of real society and real person. Is this imagination a utopia one? Can Andre Gorz really relate his spirit of utopia to concrete freedom and concrete emancipations? What he is about to solve is the consideration on the relation of time and freedom. In Gorz's opinion, time is never neutral, and time is defined objective time and existential time. The concept of freedom takes a process from abstract freedom to experienced individual freedom. He thinks that free time is the fundamental condition for man to achieve individual freedom, we should displace traditional technique with microelectronics technology in order to increase free time. The displacement is essentially ecological. The increasing free time means that the limit is disappearing between work time and free time. A time free society thus is founded. The subject to this kind of society is what Gorz called "non-class of non-workers", with the change of social contradictions of capitalist society, the contradictions between labor and capital switch to capital logic to penetrate into every aspects of human society. Their revolutionary strategy change from single" production revolution" to full dimensional " culture revolution", so " capital, ecology and freedom" is communicated logically, and the philosophical thinking of the relationship of three of them shape the paradigm of exceptional Andre Gorz's ecological Marxism.Epilogue:The critical dialogue with representative of north-American ecological Marxism. Whether O'Connor or Gorz and Foster, these scholars' critical paradigms about ecological problem based on Marx's historical materialism and nature view, but there is essential difference in their study method, class position and choosing of practical road.