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What makes us human

Marxist Theory · 2012-02-04

Core Argument

The article argues that the decisive factor in human evolution was not the growth of the brain itself, but the freeing of the hands through the adoption of upright posture, which made possible labour — the conscious, planned transformation of nature. This is not merely a historical claim about human origins. It is a materialist refutation of both genetic determinism and idealist accounts of consciousness. The central thesis is that labour, not the brain, made us human, and that this process is dialectical: the hand developed through labour, which stimulated the brain, which in turn made more complex labour possible. The article extends this argument to the present, insisting that capitalism now acts as a fetter on the further development of human potential, and that only socialism can unlock what humanity is capable of becoming.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws directly on Engels's 1876 essay "The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man", situating it within the broader framework of historical materialism. The key theoretical moves are:

  • Dialectical causality: Engels inverts the idealist account of human origins. It is not that a bigger brain caused tool-use; rather, tool-use (labour) stimulated brain development. The hand and brain develop in a dialectical relation, not a linear one.
  • The primacy of practice: Knowledge is not innate or given. It arises from the repeated interaction between humans and their environment — from labour. The article explicitly invokes the transformation of the "thing in itself" into the "thing for us" through practice.
  • Materialist theory of mind: Consciousness is "matter that has become aware of itself". The mind is not separate from the brain, and the brain is not separate from the body's interaction with the world.
  • Historical specificity of "human nature": The article rejects any transhistorical human nature. Greed and selfishness are not innate but products of capitalist social relations. This is a direct application of Marx's method in Capital — capital is not a thing but a social relation.

The article sits firmly in the Engelsian tradition of Marxist philosophy, emphasising the dialectics of nature and the continuity between natural and social science. It is a defence of dialectical materialism against both mechanical materialism (genetic determinism) and idealism (the notion that consciousness precedes material activity).

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in 2012, a moment when the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis was still reshaping politics and ideology. The relevance is twofold:

  • Ideological battleground: The article intervenes against the resurgence of biological determinism in popular science. The specific target is research by Dr Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute, reported in The Economist (4 February 2012), which sought to identify the genes "responsible for making us human". The article correctly identifies this as a reductionist approach that inverts cause and effect — treating genetic difference as the cause of human capacities rather than the product of a long process of labour and social development.
  • Political implications: The article connects the theoretical argument to the political conjuncture. If greed and selfishness are "human nature", then capitalism is inevitable and socialism is utopian. The article's refutation of this position is therefore not merely academic. It is a direct intervention against the ideological justification of austerity and class rule in the aftermath of the crash. The concluding paragraphs make this explicit: capitalism is a barrier to human potential, and the productive forces developed over millennia are being wasted.

The article also anticipates the later explosion of popular interest in evolutionary psychology and genetic explanations for social behaviour, which intensified throughout the 2010s.

Where the Argument Continues

The article leaves several threads open, which are developed elsewhere in the IDOM corpus:

  • The dialectics of nature and society: The article touches on the continuity between natural and social evolution but does not fully develop the relationship between biological evolution and historical materialism. This is explored in greater depth in other IDOM articles on the dialectics of nature and in the broader Marxist tradition (Engels's Dialectics of Nature, Trotsky's writings on Darwin).
  • The fettering of the productive forces under capitalism: The article asserts this in its conclusion but does not develop the economic argument. This is the subject of numerous IDOM articles on the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, overaccumulation, and the crisis of capitalism.
  • The critique of genetic determinism: The article's brief engagement with Dr Paabo's research could be extended into a fuller critique of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, which IDOM has addressed in other pieces.
  • The positive programme for human development under socialism: The article ends with a call for socialism but does not elaborate on how a planned economy would unlock human potential. This is developed in IDOM articles on socialist democracy, planning, and the transition period.

Connections

  • Engels, "The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man" (1876) — the direct source text.
  • Engels, Dialectics of Nature — the broader philosophical framework.
  • Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy — cited for the materialist theory of mind.
  • Marx, Capital, Volume I — the method of analysing capital as a social relation, not a thing, is applied analogously to "human nature".
  • Trotsky, Literature and Revolution — on the transformation of human nature under socialism.
  • Richard Lewontin, Not in Our Genes — a Marxist critique of biological determinism from within the scientific community.
  • Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man — a critique of biological determinism in intelligence testing.

Key Quotes

  1. "Thus the hand is not only the organ of labour, it is also the product of labour. Only by labour, by adaptation to ever new operations, through the inheritance of muscles, ligaments, and, over longer periods of time, bones that had undergone special development and the ever-renewed employment of this inherited finesse in new, more and more complicated operations, have given the human hand the high degree of perfection required to conjure into being the pictures of a Raphael, the statues of a Thorwaldsen, the music of a Paganini."

  2. "In short, the animal merely uses its environment, and brings about changes in it simply by its presence; man by his changes makes it serve his ends, masters it. This is the final, essential distinction between man and other animals, and once again it is labour that brings about this distinction."

  3. "Our consciousness and thinking, however supra-sensuous they may seem, are the product of a material, bodily organ, the brain. Matter is not a product of mind, but mind itself is merely the highest product of matter."

  4. "The mechanical approach of analysing a thing or phenomena in isolation has nothing in common with the method of dialectical materialism, which recognises that all things are interconnected, and that it is these very interconnections that give rise to the qualities of any one thing."

  5. "Greed and selfishness are not inherent qualities of the human species that arise due to the competition for resources, as is proclaimed by the Social Darwinists... Rather, greed and selfishness are products of the capitalism system, which thrives on competition between individuals."

  6. "We will only be able to use our full potential as a species by democratically planning our society and using the great productive forces that we have at our disposal for the good of people, not profit."