The Concept of Nature in Marx

The Concept of Nature in Marx

Cover of the first edition
Author	Alfred Schmidt
Original title	Der Begriff der Natur in der Lehre von Marx
Country	Germany
Language	German
Subject	Karl Marx
Published	1962 (in German) 1971 (in English)
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
ISBN	978-1781681473

Part of a series on the
Frankfurt School
Major works
Reason and Revolution The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Eclipse of Reason Escape from Freedom Minima Moralia Eros and Civilization One-Dimensional Man Negative Dialectics The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere The Theory of Communicative Action Dialectic of Enlightenment
Notable theorists
Herbert Marcuse · Theodor Adorno Max Horkheimer · Walter Benjamin Erich Fromm · Friedrich Pollock Leo Löwenthal · Jürgen Habermas Alfred Schmidt · Axel Honneth Siegfried Kracauer · Otto Kirchheimer
Important concepts
Critical theory · Dialectic · Praxis Psychoanalysis · Antipositivism Popular culture · Culture industry Advanced capitalism Privatism · Non-identity Communicative rationality Legitimation crisis

The Concept of Nature in Marx (German: Der Begriff der Natur in der Lehre von Marx) is a 1962 book by the philosopher Alfred Schmidt. First published in English in 1971, is a classic account of Karl Marx's ideas about nature.^[1]

Summary

The critic Terry Eagleton summarizes Schmidt as arguing that, according to Marx, "Human beings are part of Nature yet able to stand over against it; and this partial separation from Nature is itself part of their nature."^[2]

Reception

The Concept of Nature in Marx has been seen as a classic work.^[1] The philosopher Herbert Marcuse offers a discussion of the role of nature in Marxist philosophy informed by Schmidt's work in his Counterrevolution and Revolt (1972).^[3] The political scientist David McLellan describes Schmidt's book as, "an important and well-documented consideration of the importance of Marx's materialism."^[4]

References