The Historical Materialism’s Criticism To John Foster’s Sustainable Development Thought

Sustainable development is a fundamental concept of John. Foster’s Eco-Marxism Theory. In his book, Foster takes it as the logical starting point to analysis problem, and thus constructs grand ecological Marxist theoretical system, but he has not discussed the topic for special. With the academic research on Foster’s Ecological Marxism deepening, more and more scholars found that Foster’s sustainable development thought has a very close inner link with his ecological Marxist theory. Only grasps the meaning of the concept itself clearly and the system of constitution, can we be possible to clarify the inherent theoretical logic of Foster’s Ecological Marxist Critique. Study on Foster’s sustainable development thought can not only enrich the content of Ecological Marxism, but also provide beneficial enlightenment for the sustainable development of the human society and the construction of ecological civilization.This paper makes a systematic study on the main content of Foster’s sustainable development thought, including five parts:the first part describes the premise of Foster’s sustainable development thought, noting that the capitalist mode of production leads to material transformation of fracture between man and nature, affecting the sustainable development of human society, only the elimination of natural alienation, can help achieve harmonious development between man and nature; the second part from the perspective of ecological critique reveals that the capitalist system and the way of production is unjust and unsustainable, the value of sustainable development is to adhere to the demands of social justice and freedom; third part discusses the people-centered sustainable development model, it puts forward that we should insist on the principle of moderate development of economy in the development process and focus on people-oriented; the forth part introduces the sustainable development of consumer values, namely ecological consumption, human’s simple consumption patterns should meet the ecological requirements; part fifth describes the ways of achieving sustainable development, namely to carry out deeper ecological-moral revolution, to establish eco-socialist society and to achieve sustainable development of human society.John Foster’s sustainable development thought is a new exploration to criticize and negate capitalism, which is rationality and uniqueness. However, he eventually replaced ecological contradictions with the basic contradictions of capitalist society, weakening the economic base and the superstructure diagram type. He partly insists on historical materialism foundation of people-oriented and makes a wrong imagine to the future of society. And that’s where the theory falls down. Thus, from the perspective of historical materialism to criticize Foster’s sustainable development thought, is helpful to enrich the connotation of the sustainable development thought, expand the view of sustainable development research, it has important significance and enlightenment function for us to implement the sustainable development and promote the construction of ecological civilization.