On Shigeru Iwasa’s Eco-Marxism

Eco-Marxism tries to combine ecology and Marxism to analyze the underlying causes of the ecological crisis with Marxist viewpoint and method, and strives to find ways and strategies to solve ecological crisis. Shigeru Iwasa is the "chief expert" among the Eco-Marxism researchers in Japan, and also he is one of the representatives of the stage of "Marx’s Ecology" that Eco-Marxism developed to. Study on Shigeru Iwasa’s thoughts can not only add new views to domestic research of Eco-Marxism, but also enlighten the socialist construction of our country during the transition period.Standing on the position of Marxism, Shigeru Iwasa has made a good defense for Marx’s ecological thoughts from perspective of Practical Materialism. He adheres to Marxist analysis, and has made a thorough analysis on the source of ecological crisis, putting forward with the theory that "socialist in nature is eco-socialist". This article consists of four chapters:first is the introduction part that mainly introduces the background of this topic, the significance of the research, Shigeru Iwasa’s profile, the research status at home and abroad, and the technical route of this research; the second chapter has discusses the origin of Shigeru Iwasa’s Eco-Marxism theory from two aspects of both realistic background and academic background; the third has outlined the main contents of Shigeru Iwasa’s Eco-Marxism theory, namely "to control nature is essentially to control the relationship between human and nature", capital logic is the source of Eco-Crisis, the way to protect ecology is to build "logic of life", the way out of Eco-Crisis is Eco-Socialism. Chapter four has made evaluative discourse on Shigeru Iwasa’s Eco-Marxism theory:first is his contribution and inadequacies of his Eco-Marxism theory; thus to gain the revelation of his thoughts on building Chinese "lift-oriented society"Although Shigru Iwasa’s Eco-Marxism theory has its rationality and unique, but his view on nature and ecological values deviates from Marx’s viewpoint, thus there are still certain limitations and shortcomings in his theory; his criticism of capitalism has just arrive the surface of theoretical and phenomena criticism, which has not completely overthrow the foundation of capitalist system; his compromise to capitalism in reality makes his concept of ecological socialism a fantasy. Shigru Iwasa’s Eco-philosophy emphasizes details and ignores logical system, besides, his theory lacks sharpness and is relatively moderate.