Re: [Marxism] Re: Darwin/Marx

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Lana wrote:
>
>  If someone can
> explain to me, sincerely, what Marx meant when he said that we a society can
> change this natural/biological/Darwinian affect by living in a "socialistic"
> enviornment, I TRULY would appreciate it.

1. It would be of some use if you would explain why anyone on the list
has a particular obligation to explain it to you.

2. What in the world do you mean by "natural/biological/Darwinian
affect"? What kind of training have you had in biology, and in
particular in evolutionary biology? Are you aware of the difference
between the _fact_ of evolution (which biologists take for granted) and
the various _theories_ of evolution -- i.e., the various attempts to
_explain_ evolution? There is and always has been a continuing debate
among evolutionary biologists over different explanations. You might
read some of the essay collections of Stephen Jay Gould. You could learn
something about both biology _and_ marxism by reading Richard Levins and
Richard Lewontin, _The Dialectical Biologist_.

2a. Just a bit on one specific "biological effect." There is a gene
which causes rats to be curious and adventurous. Without this gene they
would be uncurious and fearfule. BUT, that gene has to be turned on
before it can generate that courage and curiosity -- and what turns it
on is the mother rat licking the rat cubs frequently. In other words,
_even_ with rats social relations are a part of their _biological_
'nature.' If you find a rat that won't explore for food but hides in a
corner, you would be _equally_ correct to say that the behavior is
caused by biology _or_ by social relations.

2b. So it is rather silly to see biology and environment as different
things. Neither works without the other. But you might also get Ian
Tattersoll's _Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness_. He is not
a marxist so far as I know, but he might shake up some of your
simplified notions about biology, evolution, and human behavior.

3. If someone who hadn't even had ninth-grade algebra would demand that
a mathematician teach her calculus, the mathematician would laugh.
Before you start demanding that people on this list take the time you
explain advanced concepts to you, you need to demonstrate that in
reference to history and biology you possess any elementary knowledge
whatever.

4. When do you think humans begin to talk to each other? How did
language get invented? Biologically modern humans go back 100,000 years
plus or minus. Language almost certainly goes back only 40 or 50
thousand years. What do you think humans were doing before they learned
to speak? (And incidentally, if an infant does not have people around
who respond to its babbling for its first year or two, it will never
learn to speak. Language does NOT come "naturally.")

Carrol


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