| This question <39|39> overall <44|46> Hans: <41|46>. |
| Question 79: Why did God create something as imperfect as nature and humans? (And what does this have to do with the topic at hand?) Compare Chapter 1 in Cohen's Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. |
| [45] Hans: The purpose of human existence Budlettharris [39] wrote, summarizing the Annotations: |
| I would like to first state that according to Hegel, nature and humans were created so that a forum would be given in which their properties might express themselves. This is the one and only reason that these two things exist, their properties. |
| Now you could have asked: why would the properties, which are pure ideals, want to express themselves in messy “real life”? Because they want to get to know themselves better. Here you have the link to the text of Question 79. Reading the reference which was given in the Question (and which is on reserve for this class) would also have helped. |
| You continue: |
| According to Marx existence is given. With this in mind it would appear that Marx subscribes to an almost Darwinian belief system in which creation is not something brought about by one being but an event that happens over millions of years. |
| I agree, although I would not call it a “belief system” but the state of modern science. Now you rephrase (and I almost agree with this too): |
| My interpretation of Marx's idea is that existence comes about as a pure science that is guided by all the rules of chemistry and physics. It is not that someone is watching but that something, the laws of science, is watching. |
| Material processes must follow the rules of chemistry and physics but they are not fully determined by them. If they were, then it would not be possible for humans to mediate these processes for their own benefit. |
| Later you say that, according to Marx, |
| the purpose for the existence of nature and humans is to fulfill and bring out the hidden properties within. |
| You come to this conclusion because I said in the Annotations: |
| it often takes work to bring to the surface the properties hidden in those things which make up the world. |
| Given your response I realize that what I said was not quite right. Work does not have the purpose to bring the properties of the things to the surface, but to subordinate these properties to human purposes, to make them useful for humans. The next edition of my Annotations will say: |
| the existence of the world is given, while it often takes work to harness for human purposes the properties hidden in the things we find around us. |
| This does not lead to the conclusion that the purposes of humans are somehow prescribed to them, but on the contrary that humans impose their own purpose on nature. |
| By the way, Marx was an atheist, but Hegel believed in God. |
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