Jonathan Hughes's Research On The Ecologically Benign Development Of Productivity

Jonathan Hughes bases himself on the classical literature of historical materialism and takes the theory of productivity as its focal point,with the method of holism and functionalism,from two aspects of theory and practice,to explore the relationship between human and nature and people's needs.He attempts to highlight the ecological implication of historical materialism.On this basis,the ecological Marxism ideology of“ecological benign development of productive forces” has been successfully formed.The excavation and construction of Hughes has been basically successful and it has also enriched the current western theory of ecological Marxism.When Hughes builds his ecological Marxism thought,he tries to use a wide range of methods to hit every relevant point,so as to build a convincing scientific system of “ecological benign development of productive forces”.Hughes constructs his own ecological Marxism with rigorous scholarship attitude.In the framework of historical materialism,he closely examines the relationship between “human and nature” and “development of productive forces”.He deeply explores and comprehensively displayed Marx's rich ecological thought,which provides important theoretical reference and practical enlightenment for us to deal with the relationship between economic and social development and the construction of ecological civilization today.Hughes puts productivity in the center of historical materialism.Starting from the explanatory,normative,and revolutionary nature of productive forces,he endorses the productive development of historical materialism in a benign ecological way and makes the productive development of historical materialism more normative explicitly from the qualitative dimension.On one hand,it responds to environmentalists' martyrdom of Marxism on ecological issues.On the other hand,it tries to bridge the different views of Marxists on this issue,thus establishing the guiding authority of historical materialism in solving ecological problems.Hughes believes that the development of productivity is an explanatory and normative concept.Marx uses the development of productivity to explain the change of social structure and the adjustment of production relations.The ultimate goal of Marx doctrine is to liberate all mankind and achieve the free and comprehensive development of human beings,and the social structure that can accommodate this lofty goal is the Communist society.According to Marx's scientific conception,the Communist society is based on the great development of the productive forces.In “Communist Manifesto” Marx enthusiastically praised the development of productive forces: the great development of productive forces can explain the effective satisfaction of human needs,and the great development of productive forces can explain the enhancement of man's subjective initiative and objective creativity,and the great development of productive forces can explain the establishment of the Communist system.The main reason why Marx believes in the development of productive forces lies in the fact that the real needs of mankind can only be met by relying on the development of productive forces and this need is also a necessary condition for building a Communist society.The Communist society is the society that people yearn for,yearning for it because it has more justice and less alienation,and it is a kind of society that is distributed according to demand.There must be a solid material basis for the demand distribution,and the productive forces are sufficiently developed,and the material products are abundant enough.The great development of capitalist productivity can produce more quantity and better quality material products,which accumulates material foundation for the establishment of Communist society.When the productive relations of capitalism can't hold the highly developed productive forces,the establishment of the new communist system has become a historical necessity.Hughes believes that Marx and Engels took the development of productive forces as the driving force of historical development,used them to explain the development and changes of human society,and the final logical home is the establishment of the communist system and the free and comprehensive development of human beings.Therefore,Hughes believes that the development of productive forces is the central topic of historical materialism.Under the guidance of the Marxist world outlook and methodology,Hughesstarts from this central issue and explored the normative role of the development of productive forces.The development of productive forces is not a naturally occurring,independent process of human beings,but a product of people's rational choice and social structure,which gives them the possibility of destruction,promotion and transformation.The development of the historical materialism's productive forces is the first subjected to the statute of the naturalist view of historical materialism.The principle of ecological dependence that historical materialism insists on stipulates that the development of productive forces should have ecological effects.Hughes' s thought of “ecological benign development of productive forces” is not out of thin air,and it has a specific background of the times and profound theoretical origin.The thought is based on the background of the world in which mankind itself poses a growing ecological problem.It was proposed by Hughes through his own research,in the academic debates,such as the “negative-idealist” denial of Marx's ecological thinking,Benton's critique of the Marxist labor process,Blackburn's reaction to productive tendency of historical materialism,and whether there was an ecological ideological break in early Marx and late Marx? Hughes' s concern and study of historical materialism about the development of productive forces is just started in the process of the development of ecological Marxism.The rich ecological thoughts of Marxism excavated through the in-depth study of the ecological Marxist school of thought becomes the direct source of Hughes' thought of “the ecological benign development of productive forces”.This school's ecological construction of historical materialism,such as Ager's “Theory of Ecological Crisis”,Connor's “Double Crisis Theory”,Korver's “Revolutionary Theory of Ecological Socialism”,Benton's “Nature Ultimate Theory”,as well as Forster and Burkat's“Marx's ecological theory”,provided Hughes a useful reference and inspired Hughes' s related research.Hughes believes that Marx and Engels strongly believe that mankind depends on the natural environment.They not only acknowledge the fact verbally,but also include the theory of human dependence on nature and the fact that nature affects people in their own political planning.Man and nature are in a community of life,labor is the eternal naturalcondition,and the idea of eternal labor implying that external restrictions can't be abolished.Such these ideas permeate Marx's social theory from beginning to end.Historical materialism is rooted in nature,exploring the development of productive forces in the interaction of man and nature,and explaining and analyzing human history around the development of productive forces.The path of productivity development is diverse rather than single.The prediction of future development of Communist society productivity by historical materialism includes ecological effects.This view does not contradict to the human behavior of environmental modification.Human beings rely on non-human natural objects and can promote economic growth and production development ecologically.The productivity of historical materialism can develop benignly and ecologically,which is the central issue of historical materialism.Historical materialism focuses on the theoretical perspective of general anthropocentrism,and insists on the idea that nature,society and technology are interconnected,and opposes reductionism,and applies a combination of overall and dominant factors to ecological issues and natural limits.This will link the development of productivity and ecological environment together,to provide technical support for the healthy development of ecological productivity.In Hughes' s view,the direction of the productive forces leading to the development of ecological virtues,can't be realized arbitrarily.The appropriate social structure must be relied on.The scope and direction of technological development are limited by the social structure in which they are located.Different social structures have different social and material conditions,and people's problems and needs will also be different.These conditions are closely linked with the occurrence and settlement of ecological problems.From this point of view,Hughes believes that technological progress in the eyes of Marx is conducive to environmental protection and can effectively control the accident because the new social structure built by Marx can better control the development of ecological technology of new technologies.Hughes points out that there are paradoxes to the conditions of human existence:human beings should survive is an unconditional value judgment,and in fact,human existence is conditional.That is the dependence on nature.To solve this paradox,we canonly win the living space of humankind by developing productive forces.However,at the same time,the development of productive forces must be ecologically benign,so that man and nature can live in harmony.Otherwise,the relationship between man and nature is tense,even antagonistic and harmful.The ecological benign development of productive forces recognizes people's principles of ecological inclusion,ecological impact and ecological dependence.The principle of ecological dependence requires the sound development of productive forces.Only such development of productive forces can promote the better development of mankind while avoiding the ecological crisis and ensuring the comprehensive and free development of human beings in the longer term.Hughes further points out that the benign development of productive forces can respond to ecological problems.On one hand,productivity is not equal to science and technology.Productivity is more extensive and more connotative.Science and technology are only part of it.It can't put all the blame on the science and technology.On the other hand,the standard of technological development is contingent.The healthy development of the ecological productive forces requires technological development to take ecological effects into account and the ecological effects as one of the criteria for technological development.Furthermore,the healthy development of productive forces in ecology requires all aspects of workers,objects of labor and labor information and other aspects into the ecological effect,so as to avoid and solve ecological problems.The development of technology and productivity are all related to human needs.Technology development in different forms have different ecological consequences,and different social structure under the development of the productive forces,will also have different ecological consequences.It is human needs and desires that connect the development form and ecological results.Marxism believes that there are real and false needs.The real need is the internal drive for human development.The false needs are different and they are the result of alienation.Needs are often shown as desire,and not all desires are real needs.According to Malinowski,people have different needs at the material and spiritual levels.These different needs are the internal drive for the development of human society.Ultimately,the development of the productive forces is tomeet people's needs.The benign development of productive forces can satisfy the real need of human's exclusion of alienation.The healthy development mode of human health and sustainable development is the rational choice of human beings.From the premise of human prosperity,people can distinguish their real needs from their false needs.Ecological sustainability is the real need of human existence and development.Many manipulative needs such as unlimited consumption are people false cognitions and false needs.The sustainability of ecology is the real need of human beings,and this truly needs to regulate the healthy development of the ecological development.The development of ecological benign productivity can meet the real needs of people's ecological sustainability so as to realize the all-round development of people.The construction of the Hughes thought of “ecological benign development of productive forces” not only enriches the theory of the western ecological Marxism,but also counters the critics' martyrdom of Marxism on ecological issues,and defends the right to speak on the issue of ecology of the Marxism.We should also see that there are still shortcomings in this idea,such as the lack of political function in Marx's discourse,and the lack of further systematic and deepened ideological system.We strive to evaluate objectively the achievements and shortcomings of Hughes thought of “ecological benign development of productive forces”,and continue to carry out academic research and reflection in order to give some enlightenment to the construction of ecological civilization in China.Adhering to the guidance of Marxist ecological thought,we should set up a correct view of nature,which can lead the construction of socialist ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics.We should adhere to the ecological turn of scientific and technological innovation to vigorously promote the healthy development of ecological productivity and to achieve the balance and adequacy of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era,meeting the growing needs of the people.We should strengthen the construction of the ecological civilization system with Chinese characteristics to provide policy guarantee for the ecological benign development of productivity.We should innovate propaganda and education of ecological civilization and create a social and cultural atmosphere which is conducive to the healthy developmentof ecological productivity.