Marxism and Darwinism, by Anton Pannekoek
October 25, 2018
A classic reprint of a text that puts in context our origins as an animal species and also our social nature as a key part in the development of society. (£2.50) + P&P £4.00
Search Results for: Darwin
A Socialist looks at Darwin (Glasgow – 8.30pm) – 17th October 2012
September 28, 2012
Venue: Maryhill Community Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow G20 7YE Directions: About seven minutes walk north-west from St Georges Cross SPT Subway Station Speaker: John Cumming Until the nineteenth century most people preferred to believe in the notion of special creation to explain the origin of life. But during that century, this notion became increasingly …
Read more “A Socialist looks at Darwin (Glasgow – 8.30pm) – 17th October 2012”
Darwinism and Marxism
June 13, 2012
Darwinism and Marxism both reveal in their respective spheres an ordered pattern of evolutionary development. Because one deals with the world of organic nature and the other with the world of men organised in Society, we can say that Marxism begins where Darwinism leaves off, yet together they form two halves of a unified cosmic whole.
That both Marx and Engels were highly gratified with the publication of The Origin of Species there was no doubt. Marx said, “It provides the basis in Natural History for our own theory,” while Engels comments on “Darwin’s emphasis on struggle and the discomforting of the conventionally religious who believed in the harmonious co-operation of organic nature.” Yet both Marx and Engels were critically conscious of the limitations of Darwinism and its shortcomings.
Book Reviews: ‘A Darwinian Left’, ‘Marx in Soho’, & ‘Against Parliament – For Anarchism’
January 15, 2011
A Darwinian Left
‘A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Co-operation’. By Peter Singer, Wiedenfeld & Nicholson.
This book is based on the mistaken assumption that Socialists are not Darwinians. Right from the start, Socialists embraced Darwin’s theory of the evolution of species through natural selection, and propagated it in the face of religious obscurantism. Indeed, a number of well-known early Marxists came to socialism through Darwinism, Karl Kautsky in Austria and Edward Aveling in England for instance.
Marxism and Darwinism by Anton Pannekoek
January 7, 2011
(The Socialist Party has just re-issued this pamphlet with the following new introduction)
It could be asked why the Socialist Party in 2003 should re-issue a pamphlet on Marxism and Darwinism written almost a century ago by the Dutch socialist, Anton Pannekoek? Written in 1905, it can hardly be expected to add anything new to the subject of Marxism. Also, since then, there has been a vast accumulation of evidence in support of Darwin’s evolutionist theories, with the result that they are almost universally accepted. This may be true but the continuing importance of this pamphlet is for different reasons. Pannekoek brought together the works of Darwin and Marx in a way that not only showed how each complemented the other but also provided vital lessons even for today.
Film Review: ‘Darwin’s Nightmare’
December 22, 2010
Indictment of Global Capitalism
‘Darwin’s Nightmare’, (2004)
On an elevated plateau in western Africa’s Great Rift Valley lies Lake Victoria, the source of the River Nile and the second largest freshwater lake in the world. The lake supports hundreds of animal species found nowhere else on earth – or at least it did up until the 1960s, when commercial fishermen introduced the Nile perch, in an attempt to improve fishing yields. The Nile perch is a voracious predator and within years had completely wiped out many of the native species.
50 Years Ago: The Darwin Centenary
September 26, 2010
As this month is the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, a book that raised a storm in its day, we are devoting considerable space in this issue to Darwinism and its relation to Marxism, particularly as Marx published the first section of his main work the same year.
Darwinism is an outlook based upon certain fundamental propositions put forward by Charles Darwin, just as Marxism is an outlook based upon certain fundamental propositions put forward by Karl Marx. Books by both of them were published in 1859 which clearly stated their fundamental propositions, and each devoted the rest of his life to accumulating facts in support of the theories that had been put forward. In both instances their theories have been enriched and qualified in certain directions by subsequent investigation, but in neither instance has the accuracy of their fundamental propositions been affected.
Socialism and Darwinism
September 7, 2010
Socialists are reproached for being revolutionists, by alleged Darwinians, (who have never studied evolution) as well as by some psuedo Socialists, who pretend to apply Darwinism to social movements. Both sections object to revolution, as unscientific. This objection can only arise from a misunderstanding of evolution, or from a deliberate attempt to switch the working-class off the revolutionary path. Socialism, as expounded by the S.P.G.B, through its official organ and its lecturers, is essentially scientific, never pandering to ignorance or prejudice, or attempting to escape from scientific truths by bowing to unscientific sentiments. This being so, and science being considered from the standpoint of evolution, we must consider the laws of evolution.
Pathfinders: Darwin in the pink
August 30, 2010
What Darwin said
There are two misunderstandings about Darwin. First, that he invented the idea of evolution and, second, that he put forward a theory of the origin of life. He did neither. Evolution – the idea that existing forms of plants and animals had evolved from earlier forms – existed before Darwin. What Darwin did was to provide a convincing theory as to how the different species of plants and animals had come about. He said nothing about the origin of life, only that an original life-form must have existed (however it might have come into existence). Darwin’s theory was that evolution came about through natural selection. In fact the term “Darwinian” is more appropriately applied to the theory of natural selection than to the theory of evolution.