What Is Man? Interpreting the Philosophical-Anthropological Ideas of Karl Marx Part 1: Generic Essence and Praxis

This article uses the key concepts available in Karl Marx’s texts and attempts to answer the question, “What is man?” The author explores such constitutive aspects of man’s generic essence (Gattungswesen des Menschen) and of man’s worldly being as corporeality and relationship with nature; suffering as a product of desire; praxis (Praxis) as productive creative activity (produktive Tätigkeit, Selbstbetätigung) that is carried out in the dialectical processes of objectification (Vergegenständlichung, Äußerung) and de-objectification (Entgegenständlichung, Aneignung); man’s universality; objectivity (Gegenständlichkeit) of the man-made human world; intersubjectivity and sociality/sociability (Gesellschaftlichkeit); interplay of social relations (das Ensemble der gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse); the existential and emotional relations of man (menschlichen Verhältnisse zur Welt) to the world of nature, to human activity, to the results of one’s labor, to other people, and to oneself. We demonstrate that the generic essence of man is not granted by nature but evolves in the course of historical development. Moreover, in Capital, Marx distinguishes between the invariant essence (Praxis) and historical modifications of praxis. Therefore, history is understood as “continuous change of human nature,” and man himself as a historical being. In spite of later reductionist interpretations, Marx conceptualizes man as a living, uniquely generic (socially individual), integral being, whose essential mode of existence is praxis (social conscious purposeful transforming objectal-instrumental material and spiritual activity). Man is an integral bodily-spiritual being, transforming the natural world (Welt) and creating “worlds” of his own, those of material, social, and spiritual culture (Umwelt), society and its relations (Mitwelt), which are interiorized and form an inner world (Innerlichkeit, Eigenwelt) in the process of practical activity. The article concludes that, following Marx’s philosophical anthropology, man should be considered not only as a “practical being” but also a suffering one, experiencing his worldly existence in the form of partial, existential relations to the world and to himself.

An evaluation of the assessment of creative writing essays in the Further Education and Training band

The current process of assessing creative writing essays (using the correction code and the rubric to mark the pre-final and final drafts of essays in the Further Education and Training band) does not provide useful feedback that learners can use to improve their creative essay writing skills. This discursive paper highlights the basic flaws of the process. Amongst others, is the issue of the holistic nature of the rubric feedback presented to learners on their essays, the generic essence of the rubric in assessing different essay types as though they are similar and the divergent focus of the rubric feedback on the macro-scale issues from the focus of the correction code on micro-scale essay features. The argument here is that the different foci of the two assessment tools leave learners with uncertainty on what they need to improve in their writing, thus impairing the whole process of assessment. This study recommends, inter alia, an inclusion of rubric feedback in pre-final drafts and the expansion of rubric feedback presented to learners. Keywords: Assessment; Further Education and Training; Holistic rubrics; Analytic rubrics; Correction Codes; CAPS; Creative writing essays

On the Formation and Prospects of Development of the Subject of Activity and the Relevant Forms of Self-Regulation and Responsibility

The formation of forms of self-regulation and human responsibility in ontogenesis in the article is linked with the increase in the measure of the “human factor” in an individual in accordance with the following scheme: individual (“Dasein” of a human) –> subject of activity (“essential forces ”of a human) –> personality (“generic essence” of a human in its individual existence). In the course of the analysis, conclusions are drawn about the characteristics of professional, subject-activity and partly personal selfregulation and responsibility and the reasons of their decline in the modern conditions.

THE SYSTEM OF CATEGORIES OF PSYCHOLOGY AND THE CONCEPTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL, SUBJECT OF ACTIVITY AND PERSONALITY: SOME LESSONS OF THE CONCEPTS OF KANT, FICHTE, HEGEL AND SARTRE

The categories of psychology are understood as the limit generalizations of various classes of psychical phenomena, including both the corresponding groups of particular concepts and the phenomena not yet subjected to final conceptual identification. They can be understood as the basic determinants of the psychic, having a socio-cultural nature (at the level of the subject of activity and personality) or bio-logical nature (at the level of the individual). The individual, the subject of activity and the personality, not being forms of “psychic”, should nev-ertheless possess special levers of regulation (or self-regulation) of such basic determinants of psyche, as motive, image, communication and action (that indirectly assumes also regulation of all vital activity of the individual subject of life). Not limited to the formula “personality as a transformed individual”, the author reveals the genetic continuity of the levels of the individual, the subject of activity and personality in the aspect of increasing of the degree of manifestation of the generic essence and “essential forces” of man in his individual exis-tence. At the same time, analyzing multilevel human activity from the point of view of “spatial” paradigm (in the aspect of human integration into different spheres of living space), the author finds the key to the relative independence of these levels and to the constant transitions from one of these levels of life activ-ity to another. The justification of the proposed provisions is given on the complex of the corresponding ideas of Kant, Fichte, Hegel and Sartre, taking into account the continuity between them.

Alienated nature of human essence as the main content of the civilization crisis

The crisis state of the modern capitalist, global, ‘liquid’, neoliberal, etc. society (i.e. modern civilization) can be expressed in various aspects: economic, geopolitical, ecological, social-class, etc. However, all these aspects are only external manifestations, phenomena of a more fundamental problem — the crisis of human essence or, more specifically, its alienated nature. There are various approaches to understanding the human and its essence in modern philosophical literature. In this article, the author considers one of the versions of the Marxist representation of this subject, according to which the essence of the human is manifested in the mode of its existence, i.e. self-development through the transformation of all forms of matter. This method of the human’s production of its own life can be expressed in the form of a hierarchical structure of its essential attributes or forces. Such a plan of human essence is an abstract scheme that is modified in accordance with the concrete historical conditions of human existence, filling it with new content each time. Since the emergence of private property, classes and the state, the model of social development has been such that society as a whole develops due to the degradation of its individual members. This reaches its climax today, when the alienation of human from its generic essence, from its actual mode of existence turns it into a partial and one-dimensional. This process is understood by the authors as a crisis one since, apparently, it reveals a certain limit beyond which there takes place either the transition to a new model, where the development of each is a condition for the development of all, or — stagnation and destruction of the entire system.

Licentia Poetica: The Mystery of Economics and the Power of Inversion

The article compares the views of Giorgio Agamben and Karl Marx on what both interpret as a mystery inherent in the nature of economic relations. While Marx connects this feature with the formation of capitalism, Agamben traces its source to early Christian thought. Both however regard the mystery as a historically determined particular form of an economy (in a broad sense), and both see it as the result of a process of inversion. Although Agamben rejects Marx’s interpretation of labor as a “generic essence” of mankind that is understood as mostly biological, and a constantly active volitional impulse, the author shows that their concepts have a number of important correspondences. This pertains primarily to the heterogeneity in the very phenomena of work and life. Although that heterogeneity has a biological and asocial character, it is less the result of natural processes than it is a product of the economic structure itself (a dispositif in Agamben’s terminology). Marx ironically remarked that the term “labor-commodity” is merely licentia poetica, which in fact refers to a terrible reality in which the exploitation of labor takes on the appearance of a fair exchange between its seller and buyer; and this can be read as an indication of an inverted form of that dream of happiness, which according to Agamben supports the dispositifs that man-age people’s lives for the sake of what is called their salvation.

Authenticities: A Semiotic Exploration1

Charles Taylor has called ours an “Age of Authenticity”, and authenticity is a popular object of scholarly examination, not least in anthropology. A considerable number of scholars have even proposed models for multiple “authenticities”. None, however, has brought a modified Peircean theoretical tool-kit together with ethnographic evidence that “the natives know” that there are many authenticities. This article seeks to fill that gap. Working with Peirce’s model of the sign and with postmodern theories of originals and replicas, we draw on Wilce’s Finnish fieldwork to analyze what we consider clear evidence of four authenticities arising in recent debates surrounding traditional Karelian lament and particularly highly organized attempts in Finland to “revive” the practice. We call performances arising out of the revival “neolaments”. We treat authenticities as strictly relational, metasemiotic, and ideological phenomena. Authenticities that appear salient to actors on the revivalist scene may involve the following relationships : that between any neolament performance and any particular Karelian lament performances, with the question being whether the former is adequately “traditional” (i.e. relationship between replica and original); between a particular lament performance and the generic essence of that which makes lament a lament (i.e. token and type); between a lament performance and emotion – a relationship ideologically construed as “expressive” (i.e. sign and object); and finally, a relationship between some sort of dynamic interpretant of particular old Karelian laments (lament1) and new dynamic interpretants generated in and through new lament performances (lament2 or habitual participation in such performance) that in some way replicates the old dynamical interpretant (interpretant1 and interpretant2).

Anthropocentrism: Existence against essence

Anthropocentrism apsolutizes existence in relation to human essence. In this, it may downgrade generic essence of human and its primeval need for nature. Principles of sustainable development are challenged. The way of life and work are out of step with these principles. Therefore, central question of sustainable development is: where are the causes of modern man alienation from principles of sustainable development. We have to search for the answers in human nature and nature of human community. Their synthesis can direct socioantropogenesis of modern man in direction of accepting principles of sustainable development, in which principle of need is more important than need itself.