{"id":126366,"date":"2019-01-21T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=126366"},"modified":"2019-01-21T08:36:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T08:36:20","slug":"karl-marxs-ecosocialism-capital-nature-and-the-unfinished-critique-of-political-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/01\/karl-marxs-ecosocialism-capital-nature-and-the-unfinished-critique-of-political-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl Marx\u2019s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winner of the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2018<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Karl Marx, author of what is perhaps the world\u2019s most resounding and significant critique of bourgeois political economy, has frequently been described as a \u201cPromethean.\u201d According to critics, Marx held an inherent belief in the necessity of humans to dominate the natural world, in order to end material want and create a new world of fulfillment and abundance\u2014a world where nature is mastered, not by anarchic capitalism, but by a planned socialist economy. Understandably, this perspective has come under sharp attack, not only from mainstream environmentalists but also from ecosocialists, many of whom reject Marx outright.<\/p>\n

Kohei Saito\u2019s Karl Marx\u2019s Ecosocialism<\/em> lays waste to accusations of Marx\u2019s ecological shortcomings. Delving into Karl Marx\u2019s central works, as well as his natural scientific notebooks\u2014published only recently and still being translated\u2014Saito also builds on the works of scholars such as John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett, to argue that Karl Marx actually saw the environmental crisis embedded in capitalism. \u201cIt is not possible to comprehend the full scope of [Marx\u2019s] critique of political economy,\u201d Saito writes, \u201cif one ignores its ecological dimension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saito\u2019s book is crucial today, as we face unprecedented ecological catastrophes\u2014crises that cannot be adequately addressed without a sound theoretical framework. Karl Marx\u2019s Ecosocialism<\/em> shows us that Marx has given us more than we once thought, that we can now come closer to finishing Marx\u2019s critique, and to building a sustainable ecosocialist world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaito\u2019s book is marked by a deep knowledge of Marxist theory, especially the debate over Marxism and ecology. Saito brings a major new source into the debate: Marx\u2019s forthcoming notebooks on ecology. This results in a new interpretation of Marx, one that is timely, given the economic and ecological crises of contemporary capitalism.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2014Kevin B. Anderson, author, Marx at the Margins<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are already important studies about ecological aspects in Marx\u2019s theory, but Kohei Saito is the first to go deeply into Marx\u2019s notebooks, discussing Marx\u2019s research process. Saito has not only an excellent knowledge of Marx\u2019s oeuvre, he is also occupied with Marx\u2019s sources. He provides an exciting journey, showing how deeply ecological questions are connected to Marx\u2019s unfinished project of a \u2018Critique of Political Economy\u2019.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2014Michael Heinrich, author, An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx\u2019s Capital<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn this philologically sophisticated, forensically relentless, and theoretically nuanced analysis, Kohei Saito skillfully and persuasively traces both the continuities in Marx\u2019s critical engagement with nature-human interactions and the successive discontinuities introduced by his break with his erstwhile philosophical consciousness, his turn from a utopian view of technological progress, and his growing recognition of the ecological limits to capital accumulation. Illustrating Marx\u2019s enduring commitment to a unified historical science linking the transformation of nature and social practices, Saito draws creatively on Marx\u2019s excerpt books, personal notebooks, correspondence, draft manuscripts, and published work to show the profoundly ecological nature of his transhistorical account of nature-human interaction and his pointed critique of the ecological harm produced by capital accumulation. This magnificent book shows the heuristic potential of exploring Marx\u2019s intellectual experiments in his theoretical laboratory, expands our understanding of his work over four decades well beyond its ecological aspects, and offers finely-judged comments on other ecosocialist readings of Marx. Like Marx\u2019s <\/em>Capital, this is a book to study and not just to read.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2014Bob Jessop, Lancaster University, UK; author, The State: Past, Present, Future<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Kohei Saito received his Ph.D. from Humboldt University in Berlin. He is currently associate professor of political economy at Osaka City University. He has published articles and reviews on Marx\u2019s ecology, including \u201cThe Emergence of Marx\u2019s Critique of Modern Agriculture,\u201d and \u201cMarx\u2019s Ecological Notebooks,\u201d both in Monthly Review. He is working on editing the complete works of Marx and Engels, <\/em>Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) Volume IV\/18, which includes a number of Marx\u2019s natural scientific notebooks.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 monthlyreview.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kohei Saito\u2019s Karl Marx\u2019s Ecosocialism lays waste to accusations of Marx\u2019s ecological shortcomings. Delving into Karl Marx\u2019s central works, as well as his natural scientific notebooks, Saito also builds on the works of scholars such as John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett, to argue that Karl Marx actually saw the environmental crisis embedded in capitalism. Winner of the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":126367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}