Skip to main content
Does ‘human nature’ exist and if so what is it?
Human nature is not fixed; it has changed throughout history and will continue to do so, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY

“…all history is nothing but a progressive transformation of human nature.” Marx, 1847

AN EARLIER Q&A (number 35) asked “Is the answer really ‘in our genes’?”

The answer — No — challenged the claim (most prominently declared in Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene but recycled endlessly in the media and in common discourse) that our collective identity as humans is determined by our biology. 

Dawkins in many ways merely updated the arguments of Herbert Spencer — in the 1870s probably the most celebrated and influential but right-wing philosopher of his time and whose ashes are interred opposite Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate cemetery. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Activists celebrate ‘buy nothing day,’ protesting agains
Full Marx / 11 August 2024
11 August 2024
Most currently popular arguments for degrowth describe a real problem without recognising its true cause – capitalism’s insatiable need to accumulate, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Full Marx / 29 July 2024
29 July 2024
Most phenomena have an explanation, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, but occasionally ‘anomalous’ events have led to new scientific understanding
Features / 8 July 2024
8 July 2024
The fight to defend public services is as important as the struggle over wages, but presents different challenges to workplace organising — especially with regards to bourgeois propaganda and conditioning, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
A farmer spreading fertiliser on a field in North Yorkshire,
Full Marx / 27 May 2024
27 May 2024
Marx and Engels’ concern with soil provides a focus for understanding the relationship between capitalism and the environment, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Similar stories
Full Marx / 26 August 2024
26 August 2024
The ‘degrowth’ debate raises critical issues to which only a Marxist approach can provide answers, argues the Marx Memorial Library
Activists celebrate ‘buy nothing day,’ protesting agains
Full Marx / 11 August 2024
11 August 2024
Most currently popular arguments for degrowth describe a real problem without recognising its true cause – capitalism’s insatiable need to accumulate, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Full Marx / 29 July 2024
29 July 2024
Most phenomena have an explanation, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, but occasionally ‘anomalous’ events have led to new scientific understanding
A farmer spreading fertiliser on a field in North Yorkshire,
Full Marx / 27 May 2024
27 May 2024
Marx and Engels’ concern with soil provides a focus for understanding the relationship between capitalism and the environment, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY