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Evolution: la preuve par Marx. Dépasser la légende noire de Lyssenko
Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2016
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March 28, 2019
It's been quite some time since I read this but Evolution: La preuve par Marx is a book I still think about daily. Like Capital itself, it develops its philosophy immanently, not by spelling it out but rather through developing case after case in different fields and with different substances but wguided by analogous logic.
The book is an attempt to resynthesize historical and dialectical materialism with biology, a project the western reception of Lysenko had cast as pseudoscience. After dialectical (or, to use Suing's term, "saltationist") scientists like SJ Gould and R Lewontin attempted to infuse biology again with marxism, it would take JB Foster to fully reintegrate marxism in its darwinist scientific background. Suing goes a step further, polemicizing against an all-too teleological and apolitical view of science, and framing its development in a historical framework. Some weak bits here though, exemplified by Suing saying that the highly negative view of Lysenko in the west must mean there's some truth to him — otherwise, why go to the effort of demonizing in the first place?
More important and interesting than any of this is that the workings of dialectical materialism itself are very clearly elucidated throughout. Suing's discussion of foetuses, RNA, enzymes and the definition of life, none of which have anything to do with my day-to-day reality, has decisively informed my view on things as disparate as geopolitics, Chinese socialism and the role of the individual in a mass organisation. I wished the book was translated, as its niche monolingual publisher almost certainly limits the extent to which the book can spread. Highly recommended.
The book is an attempt to resynthesize historical and dialectical materialism with biology, a project the western reception of Lysenko had cast as pseudoscience. After dialectical (or, to use Suing's term, "saltationist") scientists like SJ Gould and R Lewontin attempted to infuse biology again with marxism, it would take JB Foster to fully reintegrate marxism in its darwinist scientific background. Suing goes a step further, polemicizing against an all-too teleological and apolitical view of science, and framing its development in a historical framework. Some weak bits here though, exemplified by Suing saying that the highly negative view of Lysenko in the west must mean there's some truth to him — otherwise, why go to the effort of demonizing in the first place?
More important and interesting than any of this is that the workings of dialectical materialism itself are very clearly elucidated throughout. Suing's discussion of foetuses, RNA, enzymes and the definition of life, none of which have anything to do with my day-to-day reality, has decisively informed my view on things as disparate as geopolitics, Chinese socialism and the role of the individual in a mass organisation. I wished the book was translated, as its niche monolingual publisher almost certainly limits the extent to which the book can spread. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review