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Between ideology and science By Shlomo Avineri Tags: Engels, Marx, Darwin  There are excellent political and scientific reasons for the highly publicized celebrations marking the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth, on February 12, 1809 (he passed away on April 19, 1882). In light of the crusade the fundamentalist Christian right is conducting these days in the United States to delegitimize Darwinism, it is important that, despite possible criticisms of his theory, his scientific and intellectual achievements must be seen as putting paid to religion's monopoly on natural development. The outcome vis-a-vis basic questions of classic theology and faith in God is clear, which is why conservative guardians of the Christian establishment are alarmed. When Darwin published his "Origin of the Species" in 1859, it was the target of criticism not just from religious circles. One of his detractors was Karl Marx. This may come as a surprise to those who know that in his 1883 eulogy of his friend and colleague, Friedrich Engels actually found common ground between Marx and Darwin: "Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history." This statement became almost canonical for people seeking to prove the scientific nature of Marxism; Soviet communists considered it the cornerstone of "scientific socialism." But Marx's own view of Darwin was completely different. Marx's "Das Kapital" was published in 1867, but its introduction had already been published in pamphlet form in 1859, under the title "A Contribution to Critique of Political Economy" - the very same year Darwin's "The Origin of Species" was published. Advertisement The two scholars could not have been more different: Darwin was a scholar of international renown even before his seminal work was published, provoking an almost unparalleled storm. Marx, a German socialist who had found refuge in London, was completely unknown, except to a small group of rather marginal revolutionaries. "Das Kapital," published in Hamburg, had virtually no impact in Germany, where few had heard of its author, or in Britain, where a theoretical economic treatise written in German stood no chance of reaching a wide audience. Marx and his friend Engels worked hard to attract public attention to the book; indeed, Engels published about a dozen reviews of it in the press, mostly anonymously, some written under pen names. Toward the end of 1867, by chance, the pair was given a rare opportunity. The editor of a bourgeois liberal newspaper in Stuttgart - who was unfamiliar with "Dr. Marx" and his opinions, but knew he lived in London and had written a book - mistakenly thought it was a work in defense of capitalism. He had also heard that a Manchester-based German industrialist named Engels was prepared to review it, and he contacted him. The exchange of letters between Marx and Engels reveals that the two consulted each other over how to handle this matter. They found out that the editor of this provincial paper was known for his enthusiasm for Darwin and that he believed his evolutionary theory justified free-market capitalist competition, which ensured the survival of the fittest. And so, in a long letter, Marx outlined a proposal on how Engels should write the review to please the editor, which in turn would increase the visibility of "Das Kapital" in Germany. Marx's directions to Engels are a masterpiece of deception and camouflage, with the aim of winning over the editor and his readers. For example, he suggested that Engels write that the book "adds honor to the German spirit and was written by a Prussian writer living in London" (without a word, of course, about the fact that Marx had been wanted for years by the Prussian police). Marx also suggested that Engels play on the heartstrings of the editor's Darwinist tendencies, and write that the book, "proves that from an economic perspective, current society is pregnant with a new and higher society, and from a social point of view it proves none other than the same gradual process of change that Darwin proved from the perspective of natural history. This is included in the liberal theory of progress ..." Marx then proposed that Engels give a detailed description of those chapters that discussed the development of capitalism, excluding any mention of its revolutionary nature. Cloaked as science Engels did write the review, copying Marx's directives almost word for word. It was published on December 27, 1897 in Stuttgart's Der Beobachter. The analogy to Darwin was phrased just as Marx had proposed: "To the extent that Marx attempts to prove that current society is pregnant with a new, higher, form, he does no more than transfer to the social sphere as a law that same process of universal change whose existence was proven by Darwin in natural history ..." From this rather ironic formulation, nearly two decades later, emerged the assoiciation with Darwin used by Engels' eulogy for Marx. When "The Origin of Species" was published, Engels wrote Marx with quite a bit of satisfaction about the way it confronted traditional theological views. Marx, however, was much more skeptical, and wrote: "Darwin rediscovered his English society among animals and plants, with its division of labor, competition, the opening of new markets, 'inventions' and 'battles for survival'... That is Hobbes' version of all-out war ..." This shows that to Marx, Darwin's theory was an "ideology," just cloaking political and social worldviews in science, and was therefore far from pure "scientific truth," which purports to be free of such views. Marx also foresaw the danger to the social sciences in adopting Darwinism: Translating the latter's worldview into the social sciences (i.e., "social Darwinism") would legitimize capitalist competition, ostensibly based on the natural sciences, in which only the fittest and most efficient survive. Moreover, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, adaptations of social Darwinism served as ostensibly scientific justification for racism and the rule of "superior" groups over "inferior" ones. Indeed, Aryan racism and the concept of the inferiority of the so-called Jewish race were based on such interpretations of social Darwinism, which also served spawned theories of eugenics, some of which saw horrific implementation by the Nazis. Darwin, of course, is not responsible for how some of his disciples used his theories. However, precisely in the context of the celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of his birth - justified in and of themselves - the dark potential of his approach should be recalled. Furthermore, it should be remembered that it was Marx, of all people, who recognized the relationship between Darwinism and capitalism. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Two peoples, two states Poll: Three-quarters of both Israelis and Palestinians want a two-state solution. IDF's wartime ethics Internal army probe finds no proof of war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead.

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