The Promise of Green Commonwealth

The clear-cut contribution of epistemology from Plato to Kant has been the recognition that one sees not only with one's eyes, but also with one's "mind's eye." Marx was later to assert that this insight does not necessarily entail idealism, but rather more strictly, an appreciation of dialectics: mind and humankind are integral parts of nature. Consciousness is rooted in the body and in society. The infinite material universe is governed by its own internal powers. Scientific...
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The clear-cut contribution of epistemology from Plato to Kant has been the recognition that one sees not only with one's eyes, but also with one's "mind's eye." Marx was later to assert that this insight does not necessarily entail idealism, but rather more strictly, an appreciation of dialectics: mind and humankind are integral parts of nature. Consciousness is rooted in the body and in society. The infinite material universe is governed by its own internal powers. Scientific explanation requires a dialectification of the study of nature, society, and thought, an appreciation of the dynamism of matter and the material systems and generative mechanisms behind all process of change. Real structured interconnection exists in our economic lives. Theory can be called critical only if it penetrates beneath empirical economic facts and discerns generative economic and labor structures that are neither obvious nor apparent. A comprehensive critical social theory must stress the centrality of labor in the economy. It must help us to apprehend the dialectic of the historical and material world and the changing social condition of humanity within it. It must theorize the origins and outcomes of economic and cultural oppression be engaged politically with the labor force to end them. This is the logic and manifesto of materialism and dialectics today. Political action must have an historical and material warrant to be successful. The contemporary philosophical contributions of Herbert Marcuse, Ernest Manheim, and Peter McLaren are highlighted in this regard. Without a dialectical and historical materialism there is no future worth having for science or society.