For a Dialectics of Nature and Need: Unity, Separation, and Alienation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper will argue for the pairing of the concept of need with dialectical and materialist conceptions of the nature-society relationship. A dialectical and materialist reading of the nature-society relation, in combination with a discussion of need, will allow for a conceptualization that sees the driver of real separation under capital accumulation. In doing so, this paper will make two main claims: first, that conceptions of unity and separation arising from dialectical thought are essential to an ecological analysis that sees both the universal and particular nature-society relationship; and second, that a recognition of “need” is important for materialist thought. Indeed, the necessity of labour contains within it an important fact of “need.” Through both a recognition of separation and unity in the nature-society relation, and the pairing of labour and need, we are able to read dialectical thought and materialism as powerful conceptual strategies in order to understand general and alienated forms of the nature-society relation.