The concept of necessity appears again in Engels famous distinction between the kingdom (realm) of necessity and the kingdom of freedom. The transition from one to the other marks the end of class divided and exploitive society to communism.
The terms and idea here is based on Hegel famous notion that freedom is the mastery of necessity. The freedom in communist society is based on humans mastering their own social structure in the sense that exploiting classes no longer are able to exploit exploited classes by conditioning provision of basic necessities or meeting biological and physiological needs, upon exploited classes serving up material surpluses to the exploiting classes. As Engels says in the quote below, " "And he has now > become master of his own social > organization. The laws of his own social action, hitherto > standing > face-to-face with man as laws of > Nature foreign to, and dominating > him, will then be used with full understanding, and so > mastered by > him." He was mastered by his/her own social organization before by the existence of Masters,rulers who exploited "him and her". The masses of women and men master the Masters who were imposing necessity on the many, controlling them by conditioning proviision of their necessities on the giving of surpluses, as discussed at length in the last few posts. This is the specific necessity that is mastered by the masses and the specific character of the freedom of this "kingdom of freedom". The science that comprehends and intellectually masters the peculiar complex of necessity in exploitative society (the kingdom of necessity) is the science of historical materialism, Marxism. Once it successfully leads revolution to world socialism and communism, it makes its own subject matter - exploitative societies of all types, especially in the final conflict capitalism = obsolete, kaput, thrown in the dustbin of history. Like the proletariat ending all classes including itself, historical materialism and its practice self-abolishes. The kingdom of freedom will have a new art of society, which will be less a science. The system of thought that guides action in the realm of freedom will have a heavier proportion of idealism rather than materialism (science), because, as I say above the artificially imposed necessity of class society will be no longer imposed The freedom of communism will in part be that ideas, thought, human will, conscious planning rather than material necessity will guide action and activities. Humans will be able to do what they will and want, that is be free. On Sat, 2/14/09, Charles Brown <cdb1003 at prodigy.net> wrote: > From: Charles Brown <cdb1003 at prodigy.net> > Subject: kingdom of necessity > To: cdb1003 at prodigy.net > Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009, 8:31 PM > From Anti-Duhring > > With the seizing of the means of production > by society, production of > commodities is done away with, and, simultaneously, the > mastery of the > product over the producer. Anarchy in > social production is replaced by > systematic, definite organization. The struggle for > individual > existence disappears. Then, for the > first time, man, in a certain > sense, is finally marked off from the rest of the animal > kingdom, and > emerges from mere animal conditions > of existence into really human > ones. The whole sphere of the conditions of life which > environ man, > and which have hitherto ruled man, > now comes under the dominion and > control of man, who for the first time becomes the real, > conscious > lord of nature, because he has now > become master of his own social > organization. The laws of his own social action, hitherto > standing > face-to-face with man as laws of > Nature foreign to, and dominating > him, will then be used with full understanding, and so > mastered by > him. Man's own social organization, > hitherto confronting him as a > necessity imposed by Nature and history, now becomes the > result of his > own free action. The extraneous > objective forces that have, hitherto, > governed history,pass under the control of man himself. > Only from that > time will man himself, more and > more consciously, make his own history > — only from that time will the social causes set in > movement by him > have, in the main and in a constantly > growing measure, the results > intended by him. It is the ascent of man from the kingdom > of necessity > to the kingdom of freedom _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
