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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
Marx
The Question of Anthropological Distinctiveness: The Production of the Means of Subsistence as the Foundation of Society
Let me begin by quoting Marx from the German Ideology:
Men can be distinguished from animals by consciousness, by religion, or anything else you like. They themselves begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence, a step which is conditioned by their physical organization. By producing their means of subsistence men are indirectly producing their actual material life.
(Marx and Engels, 2000/1977 [1846]: 177)From a materialist point of view, the main criterion for distinguishing one species from another is its way of asserting itself as a living species. Thus, one can distinguish humans from animals on the basis of their capacity to distinguish themselves from other species through the physical organisation of their life forms. This distinctiveness, which cannot be brought into being by reference to an external force – such as consciousness, thought, or religious sentiment – is rooted in a given activity, namely in production, that is, in the production of the means of subsistence. The human body is designed to produce, and reproduce through its production, and thereby ensure its own existence. As the existential importance of the verb ‘to produce’ suggests, anthropological specificity is derived from human productivity: in the last instance, to be able to produce means to be able to produce the means of subsistence.
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