Research On Foster’s Ecological Criticism Of Capitalism

Foster is a famous contemporary American ecological Marxist theorist.He is dedicated to reinterpreting Marxism with ecological thinking,insisting on critical research on capitalist systems and production methods from interdisciplinary fields such as sociology,ethics,ecological political philosophy,ecological economics,and natural sciences.Mainly focusing on the investigation of the contradictions of capitalist politics,economy and ecology,he is trying to construct an ecological socialism thought with social justice and sustainable development.His systemic ecological critical thinking presents unique theoretical characteristics and has a significant impact on the development of the entire ecological Marxism.Foster’s early ecological Marxist thoughts provided a new path for understanding Marx’s thought,that is,to understand and develop Marx’s thought from an ecological perspective,examine the background of Marx’s view of nature,explore the promotion of materialism and science to the generation of ecological thinking,explain the connotation and development of metabolic theory,and re-examine the relationship between man and nature on this basis,and try to use an ecological method to connect social revolution with changes of the relationship between man and nature.With the development of Foster’s thought,his research focus has shifted from the early exploration of Marx’s view of nature to the application and development of Marx’s ecological thought,which reflects his inheritance of Marx’s critique of modernity.Although our country’s academia pay more attention to Foster’s ecological Marxist thoughts and continue to produce related academic achievements,as his capitalist ecological critical thoughts are still being developed and perfected,the theoretical and practical value of his thoughts needs to be found with further analysis and exploration.Due to the ecological situation of the contemporary western capitalist society,Foster’s exploration of the realistic root of the ecological dilemma contains the pursuit of substantive equality between man and nature,between man and man,as well as the concern and affirmation of the use value of nature,which is gradually becoming the internal requirement of the current social and environmental justice.Foster’s exploration of capitalist ecological criticism not only reflects his inheritance of Marx and Engels’ materialistic view of nature,but also is inspired by the social criticism theory of Frankfurt School,the influence of monopoly capitalism and capital accumulation theory,and the investigation of the ecological criticism pedigree of environmental sociology.Foster integrated the theory of metabolic fracture into the interpretation of the relationship between man and nature in contemporary western capitalism,and integrated political and economic criticism,cultural criticism,etc.,forming the basis of contemporary capitalist ecological criticism,so as to continue theoretical exploration for the development of a more dialectical and revolutionary ecological practice.At the same time,he insisted on the continuous questioning of the ecological problems in the capitalist society,laying the foundation for the construction of a set of ecological socialism theory with substantive equality and sustainability.This paper combs and interprets Foster’s capitalist ecological criticism from several aspects.First,it reviews and discusses the theoretical background of Foster’s capitalist ecological criticism;Secondly,on the basis of systematically grasping the theoretical context of Foster’s thought,this paper explores the main content of Foster’s capitalist ecological criticism thought,analyzes the theoretical framework and logical approach of Foster’s capitalist ecological criticism thought,and explains its application in many fields of society.This discussion not only enriches the content of ecological criticism,but also expands the practical path to realize ecological socialism;Finally,on the basis of Foster’s transcendence of the early ecological Marxist theory,this paper evaluates its historical status and practical significance.Foster’s thought of capitalist ecological criticism elucidates the new dimension of the study of western Marxist philosophy and reflects the new progress of the theoretical vision of Marxist philosophy.At the same time,his unique research on ecological criticism and ecological socialism,as the basis of ecological political philosophy and ecology,also has far-reaching reference significance for us to explore the current global ecological problems and the construction of China’s ecological civilization society,both in theory and in reality.