Engels pamphlet, The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, written in 1876, but not published until 20 years later, contained many brilliant insights into the theory of human development. Against a background of very scarce fossil or other evidence, his application of the method of dialectical materialism to the problem allowed him to provide a consistent and coherent explanation of human development well in advance of the majority of his scientific contemporaries; an explanation that remains to this day the main pivot of any Marxist view of human development. The central purpose of Engels essay on the part played by labour was to show that human labour and social organisation were not the product, so much as the cause, of the development of the human hand and brain, those features most generally used to characterise human likeness. Labour, Engels explained, is the primary basic condition for all human existence, and this to such an extent that, in a sense, we have to say that labour created man himself. Engels view was presented in direct opposition to those contemporaries of his who saw human development through the spectacles of Civilisation, as a process motivated by ideas and thoughts. Engels explained: All merit for the swift advance of civilisation was ascribed to the mind, to the development and activity of the brain. Men became accustomed to explain their actions from their thoughts, instead of their needs…even the most materialistic natural scientists of the Darwinian school are still unable to form any clear idea of the origin of Man, because under this ideological influence they do not recognise the part that has been played therein by labour. The idealistic notion of the origin of humanity found its expression in scientific circles in the generally held theory that mankind developed a large brain before the development of the hand and before bipedalism (erect walking). Hypnotised by the wonders of society, the scientists of Engels day (and indeed very much later) pushed the more modest productions of the working hand into the background. With scarcely any direct and concrete scientific evidence, but using only the method of dialectical materialism, Engels was able to show that the common scientific theories of human development were in fact incorrect. His pamphlet explained that in early man the upright posture and bipedalism had freed the hands for the manipulation and manufacture of tools. The making of tools and their use led to a further refinement and development of the hand so that the hand was both the organ and the product of labour. The conscious interaction of man with nature - altering both at the same time - was an active process in contradistinction to other animals interaction with nature which is entirely passive. Man is the only animal which engages in labour. Animals in the narrower sense also have tools, but only as limbs of their bodies…Man alone has succeeded in impressing his stamp on nature. But the use and manufacturing of tools, Engels explained, also increases the usefulness and purposefulness of joint activity, of social labour. Both tool production - and social labour raised the question of language and speech. First comes labour, after it and side by side with it, articulate speech. These were the two most essential stimuli under the influence of which the brain of the ape gradually changed into that of man. The further development of the brain, of course, would interact with labour processes and social intercourse to develop greater capacity for language, for reflection, judgement and abstract thought. The accumulated effects of these interacting processes led to human evolution. By the combined functioning of hands, organs of speech and brain, not only in each individual but also in society, human beings became capable of executing more complicated operations…
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 07:17:17 +0000
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