Study On Karl Marx's Metabolic Rift Thought

The study of Marx's Metabolic Rift thought is not only a reflection on the reality of ecological crisis,but also a positive response to foreign scholars' questioning of Marx's ecological thought,and further a theoretical need to promote the construction of ecological civilization of socialism with Chinese characteristics.About this study,many scholars from Frankfurt school and Ecological Marxism school have deeply excavated Marx's thought of metabolism and metabolic rift,and explained it from multiple perspectives and levels.They believe that all Marx's ecological criticism of capitalism is based on the concept of “metabolic rift”.Domestic scholars not only widely introduced the foreign research results of Marx's metabolic rift thought,but also made theoretical thinking and value analysis combined with Chinese practice.On the whole,there is no systematic research on Marx's metabolic rift thought.Based on a large number of Marx's expositions on “Stoffwechsel” and its “rift”,this paper,from the perspective of historical materialism,along the main line of Marx's thought on the relationship between man and nature,analyzes the theme from aspects of theoretical analysis,formation and development,profound connotation,characteristics and contributions,and contemporary enlightenment as a whole.That includes as follows:First,through the discrimination and determination of German “Stoffwechsel”translation,the origin of the concept,the definition of Marx's concept of metabolism and metabolic rift,and the theoretical interpretation of Marx's metabolic rift thought,the basic horizon of Marx's metabolic rift thought is clarified.Second,in the Chinese version of the Marx and Engels Collected Works,it is found that Marx has always adhered to the thought of “metabolism” and “metabolic rift” in the past 30 years,from the Reflection in 1851 to Comment on Wagner's textbook of political economy in1880.Influenced by this,this study,on the basis of Marx's text with the word “Stoffwechsel”,further investigates Marx's metabolic rift thought according to the “Stoffwechsel” concept.After lining out the historical process of its germination,formation,development and perfection,in terms of its space-time field,historical origin,cognitive source and theoretical basis,it reveals the formation process of Marx's metabolic rift thought.The third is to systematically reveal the profound connotation of Marx's metabolic rift thought from four dimensions: the root causes of it,the ecological critic meaning of it,the exploration of the conditions to recover it,and the beautiful prospect of the ideal state of metabolism.From the perspective of “root causes”,Marx pointed out that the original accumulation of capital forced the separation of workers and instruments of labor,resulting in the metabolic rift between man and land;capital production demands to squeeze laborers and plunder natural resources to the greatest extent,resulting in tension or even confrontation between man and nature;capital accumulation requires endless production and consumption,and the unlimited demand for labor and natural resources makes the metabolic rift become“irreparable”.From the perspective of “ecological criticism dimension”,Marx criticized that capitalists “pursue profits as the only purpose of capital production”,and regarded nature as an infinite resource pool and a garbage center,which would inevitably lead to alienation problems such as the shortage of natural resources and the deterioration of ecological environment.The capital logic under the capitalist system is to cause labor alienation,natural alienation,and human alienation.From the perspective of “conditional exploration dimension”,Marx pointed out that only by realizing communism to replace capitalism in social system,adhering to the integration and coordinated development of urban and rural areas in terms of spatial optimization,and implementing material recycling in production practice,can the metabolic rift between man and nature be bridged.From the perspective of“beautiful prospect”,Marx emphasizes that the future communist society is an ideal society in which human and nature live harmoniously.It includes a mode of production conforms to the essential requirements of metabolism,which follows the principles of ecological production,consumption and distribution.Fourthly,from the historical changes of the metabolic relationship between man and nature,it is concluded that Marx's metabolic rift thought has the theoretical characteristics of dialectical unity,systematic integrity and social historicity.From the historical process of the development of Marxist theory,the theoretical contribution of Marx's metabolic rift thought is that it develops the theoretical cognition of the relationship between man and nature,surpasses the metaphysical materialist view of nature,and broaden the connotations of Marxist ecological thought.Fifthly,on the basis of following the basic principles of historical materialism and closely combining with the practice of ecological civilization construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era,it reveals the important enlightenment of Marx's metabolic rift thought on human ecological practice.At theoretical level,we should fully understand that man and nature are an inseparable organic whole,that human practice is always restricted by objective laws,can not ignore and exceed the ecological threshold and human beings should consciously maintain the balance of the ecological system.At practical level,we should pay attention to land restoration for developing ecological agriculture,optimize ecological space layout for building green urban and rural areas,develop circular economy promoting the construction of ecological civilization.Through the above five aspects of research,this paper concludes that Marx's metabolic rift thought is based on the position of historical materialism,by applying Marx's political economy,to analyze the historical changes in the relationship between man and nature in the process of human social development,and to focus on the “irreparable” problem of metabolic rift between man and nature,so as to reveal the anti-ecological nature of capitalist system.It has profound connotations including root analysis of the metabolic rift,ecological criticism of capitalism,exploration of conditions for bridging the metabolic rift,bright prospect for the metabolism in the future.It is a scientific ideological system with distinct theoretical characteristics containing dialectical unity,systematic integrity and social historicity.It is not only an important part of Marx's ecological thought,but also “the core element of ecological criticism of capitalism”,which is of great theoretical and practical significance to promote global ecological governance and ecological civilization construction.