Study Of O'Comlor's Views Concerning Nature Under The Vision Of Marxism

Since the 1960s, with the occurrence of the global ecological problem, more and more attention has been paid to the relation between man and nature. O'Connor, as an ecological Marxist in the U.S.A, is one of the major observers whose views concerning nature had been specified in his Cultural Materialist Ecological Philosophy.Proposal of O'Connor's views concerning nature had much to with the ecological crisis of contemporary western capitalism, global ecological movement, green politics as well as the shortcomings of traditional Socialism, which are mainly based on the theory of ecological crisis of Frankfort school, ecology, systematology, futurology of nature science as well as the ideas of Marxism concerning the relation between man and nature. O'Connor holds that his theory can fill in the bank of Marxism and suggest solutions to the ecological crisis at present.The main ideas of O'Connor's views concerning nature:⑴reconstruction of historical materialism from the perspective of ecology, that is, reconstruction of the classical theory concerning productivity and productive relation through nature and culture,with social labor at the core of the trinity of nature, culture and social labor;⑵reinterpretation of the relation between capitalism and nature from the perspective of ecology, that is, to shift focus on the contradictions of capitalistic productive relation (and productivity) with its productive conditions, which is the so-called second contradiction of capitalism by O'Connor ( the first contradiction of capitalism is between capitalistic productivity and its productive relation),on the ecological crisis out of shortage of productive conditions,and as well as on the unsustainability of capitalism;⑶integration of nature into socialism from the perspective of ecology, that is, to integrate ecological movement, green politics with socialism so as to transform socialism of distributive justice into ecological socialism of productive justice.The major differences between O'Connor's views concerning nature and that of Marx: The theoretical basis of the former is nature that points at economical and ecological crisis of capitalism whose ideal is ecological socialism. The theoretical basis of the latter is practice that points at economical crisis of capitalism whose ideal is Communist society. Besides the differences, they have many in common: both attach great importance to the relation between man and nature and attribute ecological pollution to capitalism. Moreover, the former adds cultural factors to the latter and expands its view so that the latter can keep pace with time. The limitations of O'Connor's views mainly lie in the metaphysics of its historical materialism, the non-thoroughness of its critique on crisis of capitalism as well as the Utopia of its Ecological Socialism.O'Connor's views concerning nature are valuable to resolve the ecological crisis in China at present which can suggest us concerning our ecological education and constructions of harmonious society and ecological civilization.