The M ediation o f Nature through Society

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matter. Man can only proceed in his production in the

same way as nature itself, that is he can only alter the forms
o f the material' The alteration o f the forms can itself only
take place with the help o f natural forces, amongst which
M arx also counted the active human Subjects.
By releasing the slumbering powers * o f the material o f
nature, men redeem it: changing the dead in-itself* into a
living for-itselT, they so to speak lengthen the series o f
objects brought forth in the course o f the history o f nature,
and continue it at a qualitatively higher level. Nature
propels forward its process o f creation by the agency d f
human labour. Revolutionary practice therefore assumes a
cosmic * as well as a social significance.
It is very remarkable that here, where M arx described
human labour as the alteration o f the form o f matter in
accordance with its natural laws,70he also had in view a very
general philosophical state o f affairs: the world is matter in
motion in definite forms. M arx agreed with Engels71 on this
point, at least in abstracto. T his appears from his selecting
the following quotation from the book Meditazioni Stella
Economia Politico, by the Italian economist Pietro Verri,
published in 1773, as corroboration o f the view quoted
above, that man can only proceed in-his production in the
same way as nature itself:
A ll the phenomena o f the universe, whether produced by the hand o f
man or b y the general laws o f physics, are not in fact newly-crcatcd but
result solely from a transform ation o f existing materia). Composition
and division arc the only elem ents, which the human spirit finds again
and again when analysing the notion o f reproduction; and this is
equally the case with the reproduction o f valu e. . . and o f riches, when
earth, air, and water becom e transform ed into cam in the fields, or
when through the hand o f man the secretions o f an insect turn into
silk, or certain m etal parts are arranged to construct a repeating
watch.7*

W hile natural processes independent o f men are essenti

ally transformations o f material and energy, human pro
duction itself does not fall outside the sphere o f nature.
Nature and society are not rigidly opposed. T he socially
active man
confronts the material o f nature as one o f her own forces. H e sets in