[Xmca-l] Re: Is Property "Natural"?

[Andy Blunden]

I think M-P's characterisation of Hegel's views is fairly 
accurate in this instance, David. Whether that is reason for 
criticising the Engels of the 1870s/80s is another matter 
altogether. And that humans share these particular 
characteristics with animals would be as expected, since 
rudimentary human characteristics are invariably shared with 
other animals.
Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
On 11/04/2016 8:08 AM, David Kellogg wrote:
> I'm reading Merleau-Ponty's Sorbonne lectures on Child Psychology and
> Pedagogy. On p. 76 he takes Engels to task for not explaining the origins
> of private property, and informs him, brimming with confidence, that
> according to Hegel the origins of private property are simply an attempt by
> man to extend the sovereignty he exercises over his own body.  (On p. 77 he
> once again scolds Engels for explaining partriarchy as a form of slavery,
> and once again calls on Hegel to inform Engels that there exists a "special
> relationship" between husband and wife!)
>
> I leave aside whether Hegel is really to blame for this reasoning (it later
> transpires that the real culprit is Freud). I leave aside the fact that
> none of this does what Merleau-Ponty is trying to do. He is trying to show
> that property is not natural, but foreign (I think what he means is
> "cultural" or maybe "social"). Merleau-Ponty only succeeds in arguing that,
> since it is supposedly an extension of the body and of the will to
> reproduction property and patriarchy really ARE natural.
>
> Even while Hegel was still alive, Hazlitt was arguing that the self who
> profits from the enjoyment of property requires far more imagination than
> has less immediacy to children than the other selves who take pleasure and
> pain in our good times and bad (You would think that the author
> "Phenomonology of Perception" would be all too ready to acknowledge
> this!).  Actually, it now appears that this is something we share with
> other primates. Although chimps and bonobos are not particularly well known
> for their business acuity, it appears that even capuchin monkeys are
> acutely sensitive to wage disparity.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dMoK48QGL8
>
> I remember showing a North Korean monster movie to a toddler as part of an
> elaborate attempt to elicit certain forms of stative verb that have a moral
> as well as an aesthetic dimension: instead, the toddler pointed to some
> characters who were sleeping caves and asked "How can they sleep there, in
> the wet, while we are so comfortable here in this apartment?" When I read
> Max's work, I am struck by how "natural" it is that a young person who is
> not starving or on the street should look at those who are, and respond
> with solidarity, indignation, and above all incredulity at its supposed
> necessity.
>
> David Kellogg
> Macquarie University
>