Marxism and Darwinism

by Anton Pannekoek, Nathan Weiser

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Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Biology

58 pages, Nook

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

Dutch astronomer and marxist theorist.

He was one of the main theorists of council communism. As a recognized Marxist theorist, Pannekoek was one of the founders of the council communist tendency and a main figure in the radical left in the Netherlands and Germany.

In his scientific work, Pannekoek started studying the distribution of stars through the Milky Way, as well as the structure of our galaxy. Later he became interested in the nature and evolution of stars. Because of these studies, he is considered to be the founder of astrophysics as a separate discipline in the Netherlands.

The Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek at the University of Amsterdam, of which he had been a director, still carries his name.

Reviews

[Gunblaze · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's alright. Mutual aid by Kropotkin might be better imo

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

"At the funeral of Marx, Engels made much of the connection between Darwinism and Marxism, stating that just as Darwin had discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx developed the la of development of human history." -From Helena Sheehan's "Marxism and the Philosophy of Science."

With this in mind, and with Pannekoek's citations throughout the work-which include Kropotkin-it is difficult not to see an early attempt at synthesizing Marxism and Anarchism, here. This pamphlet takes both Marx's theory of development in history and combines it with that of Darwin's theory of organic development; Pannekoek does this by including Kropotkin's theory of mutual aid inbetween the two. Why is this interesting? It is fascinating because he is attempting to combine two of the fundamental theories of scientific socialism from the 19th century, one from political economy, the other from biology, and one associated primarily with Marxism, and the other with Anarchism (though of course there was and is overlap).

The first half of the pamphlet is an argument against social darwinism, pointing out, in conclusion, that it is the free market which produces conditions similar to that of "nature," in that it creates a desperate struggle for existence in society, allowing to the bourgeoisie to speak of higher and lower races by pointing out to the conditions they themselves (unknowingly) create. I do not find this dated, as the new wave of far right movements are returning to biological explanations to justify their racism. Capitalists also still appeal to "human nature" in their discourses, so in this regard, too, it is relevant. In the latter half, Pannekoek outlines the biological theories that point to the opposite tendency, namely, mutual aid and social feeling.

Etymologically, Pannekoek develops the similar origins of the word "tool" and "organ" to speak about the parallels between the development of organs in nature and the development of tools (machines, means of production, etc.) as a means of competition within capitalism. This, in itself, is a very interesting point and could be further developed. This is not a long work, and while simple, it is definitely an interesting starting point for further thought.

[AHW · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly historically interesting. Granted that I know a lot about marxism and very little about evolution, but I found Pannekoek's better ideas were inhibited by insufficient frameworks, often as a result of not fully developing a better view that he indicates out of the shell of an older, more liberal frame, and also by generally clumsy framing (he for example states that Darwinism has to do only with animal life and marxism only with human society - and then states that humans have evolved to be social animals. This would of course mean that marxism investigates phenomena made possible by evolved human traits, but this obviously important insight is never drawn out). Furthermore, his interesting insights on the relationship between animal and human bodily organs and tools are set against a very strange technological-determinist reading of Marx, in which the succession of modes of production is fundamentally a succession of technological developments, which runs through the whole pamphlet. Any marxist should know that this is totally upside-down - suited more to Stalin with his developmentalist excitement over the productive forces than to a rigorous and accurate marxism. Technologies are in reality primarily *shaped by*, and their use in the world *heavily* shaped by, the mode of production; technologies make new modes of production *possible*, sure, but that doesn't mean that they determine the mode of production of a society in any real way.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fairly short pamphlet is essentially Kautsky's Ethics in shorter form, complete with the odd charge that animals have morals and almost every good and bad concept to be found in that work. Obviously written as a pamphlet for the working-class, diatribe against religion and bourgeois individualism is useful and correct. Not much else here, to be honest.