>>>Your last reply would suggest that you now share my view concerning the nature of humans. This view is that they form a constituent part of nature just as much as elephants, crows and chimps. This means that homo sapiens adds nothing qualitatively different to reality despite the enormous technology that he has produced. Indeed this technology is essentially no different to nature itself. It may not even be as complex as much of nature especially its life forms. Just recall that despite computer technology humans are still not able to produce a product of the complexity of a squirrel. <<< Comment All Marxists know to one degree or another that man is of nature. I have never read any Marxist presentations that claim otherwise. In fact on the Socialism list there is an interesting article by John Bellamy. There is considerable difference concerning the practical approach to nature and man as metabolic processes and the current problem of entropy. Nevertheless, I have a different materialist assessment of your premise. "homo sapiens adds nothing qualitatively different to reality" . . . (than) "elephants, crows and chimps" . . . . "despite . . . technology . . . this technology is essentially no different to nature itself." Really? "homo sapiens adds nothing qualitatively different to reality" . . . (than) "elephants, crows and chimps" . . . "despite computer technology humans are still not able to produce a product of the complexity of a squirrel." Homo sapien sapien creates history. "(E)lephants, crows and chimps" do not create history. This is what homo-sapien sapien creates that is qualitatively different from even nature and added to reality. We create our own history. Nature does not create our history. Wo/man does in fact . . . fact . . . add something qualitatively different to our reality and this something is called history. "(E)lephants, crows and chimps" do not create history. History is not an abstract progression of "from" into "to" or from one moment to the next, but is measured through the very human lens of alienated labor, which creates the progression - sequential process, called history. This history is delineated any way one chooses, but is made intelligent to ourselves - not nature or "elephants, crows and chimps,"on the basis of the development of the material power of production. >>Social relations among humans is not something that separates humans off from other species. Indeed some animals, such as chimps, engage in social life. However it is true that homo sapiens takes social relations to a new complex height. But this does not necessarily generate a bifurcation between humans and the animal kingdom. Even their tool making capacity is not said to be unique to the human species. We can never with certainty concluded that the human species was destined to develop from being proto human to fully human. << As we would say in my youth, "from out of his hand jumpshants, crows and chimps" do not create history. History is not an abstract progression of "from" into "to" or from one moment to the next, but is measured through the very human lens of alienated labor, which creates the progression - sequential process, called history. This history is delineated any way one chooses, but is made intelligent to ourselves - not nature or "elephants, crows and chimps,"on the basis of the development of the material power of production. >>Social relations among humans is not something that separates humans off from other species. Indeed some animals, such as chimps, engage in social life. However it is true that homo sapiens takes social relations to a new complex height. But this does not necessarily generate a bifurcation between humans and the animal kingdom. Even their tool making capacity is not said to be unique to the human species. We can never with certainty concluded that the human species was destined to develop from being proto human to fully human. <
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