Many are the insights that the philosopher Friedrich Engels had into the relationships between humans and the environment.
To begin with, in the 19th century, an age in which most scientists thought that human evolution was due only to the development of the brain, Engels, in his essay The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from the Ape to Man, contained within the posthumous book Dialectics of Nature, first published in 1925 in Russian (with the German text alongside it), went against the tide. Engels affirmed that the use of the hand and tool-making—generally speaking, labor—was a crucial factor for the enlargement of the brain.
For Engels, in the Darwinian ‘struggle for existence’, only those who were better than others at making tools had higher chances of survival. Over time tool making contributed to the development of the brain, leading to the birth of modern humans.
Astonishingly, current research on these issues aligns closely with Engels’ predictions. For example, see Stout (2020), Birch (2021), and Malafouris (2021).
Engels’ thought in his unfinished book Dialectics of Nature, however, was not only prophetic about the evolution of human beings, but rather, and especially, about the influence of human activities on the environment and the great responsibility we humans carry towards it.
Indeed, Engels also warns us humans against what he calls ‘the revenge of nature’ with words that sound incredibly timely in light of the current environmental crisis:
Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. The people who, in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere, destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land, never dreamed that by removing along with the forests the collecting centres and reservoirs of moisture they were laying the basis for the present forlorn state of those countries. When the Italians of the Alps used up the pine forests on the southern slopes, so carefully cherished on the northern slopes, they had no inkling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots of the dairy industry in their region; they had still less inkling that they were thereby depriving their mountain springs of water for the greater part of the year, and making it possible for them to pour still more furious torrents on the plains during the rainy seasons. Those who spread the potato in Europe were not aware that with these farinaceous tubers they were at the same time spreading scrofula. Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature—but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.[1]
Engels reminds us that humans do have an impact on the environment, and throughout history this impact has often been deleterious. For example, in Mesopotamia, Greece, and Asia Minor, among others, the destruction of forests almost definitively ruined the land. Hence, humans need to act responsibly when dealing with the environment.
Nowadays, the impact of human activity on the environment is plain for all to see. It has been so dangerous as to put life on Earth at risk. If we don’t take responsibility now, as Engels suggests, many more environmental catastrophes are yet to come, and no one can guess the consequences, which could well be lethal for us all.
In our everyday lives, we are beginning to experience the terrible effects of the human-caused climate change. For example, in recent years, my country, Italy, has suffered from severe torrential rains that tragically led to loss of human life. In 2023, what has been considered the most severe flood in Italy in a century occurred in the regions of Emilia Romagna and Marche, where six months’ rain fell in just 48 hours. This event resulted in deaths and left almost 20,000 people homeless.
Such events can no longer be permitted. We all have the power to prevent them from happening. We need to radically change our approach to nature. We need to take Engels' warning seriously, and stop behaving as if we were masters of nature.
[1] Engels F., Dialectics of Nature. Translated by C. Dutt. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1986, p. 180.
Other sources:
Foster J. B., Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000.
Stout D. Culture, Mind, and Brain in Human Evolution: An Extended Evolutionary Perspective on Paleolithic Toolmaking as Embodied Practice. In: Kirmayer LJ, Worthman CM, Kitayama S, Lemelson R, Cummings CA, eds. Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Models, and Applications. Current Perspectives in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Cambridge University Press; 2020:55-87.
Birch, J. Toolmaking and the evolution of normative cognition. Biol Philos 36, 4 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-020-09777-9.
Malafouris L. How does thinking relate to tool making? Adaptive Behavior. 2021;29(2):107-121. doi:10.1177/1059712320950539.
Picture from Wikipedia
