John Bellamy Foster discusses the struggle for social justice and ecology through the times of Epicurus, Marx, Einstein and into the present & its millennia-long intellectual foundations.
Humanity and nature through social production: Marx’s materialism unfolded from Epicurus
In this first segment of a series on ecology and materialism, John Bellamy Foster explains how Marx, who was not a natural scientist learned from chemists, physicists, biologists and the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Marx then garnered a unique theoretical approach that identifies the causes of the societal and ecological crises we face today.
A socialist transformation cannot ignore the transformation of human relations with nature
In Part 2, John Bellamy Foster debunks the misconception that socialism and materialism had no role in the development of ecological analysis. His research shows that socialist transformation involves the transformation of human relations with nature, and that the modern ecological movement grew out of Marx’s analysis of the dialectics of society and nature. And there again, the Epicurean strand carries right through.
In this third segment of a series on ecology and materialism, John Bellamy Foster concludes that across different societies starting from ancient China, the Hellenistic world and India, there is a parallelism of class struggles. They involve notions of self-consciousness through production in relation with nature, human freedom, solidarity and substantive equality. Common to them is a praxis that combines Epicurus’s philosophy of enough and reciprocity with Marx’s emphasis on production and transformation.
Why “Albert Einstein’s ‘Why Socialism?’”?
John Bellamy Foster reflects on the enduring relevance of Einstein’s “Why Socialism?” in this fourth segment of our series on ecology and materialism. Marx’s foundations of ecological materialism are blended with the work of natural scientists and the Greek philosopher Epicurus. Socialism, as a transformational project whose intellectual birthplace is materialism, had to be forcefully defended by Albert Einstein, the preeminent scientist of the 20th century. Bellamy Foster, discussing his Introduction to Einstein’s essay, explains the importance of Einstein’s contribution in the postwar context and into the present.
This 4-part series is based on Bellamy Foster’s path-breaking research published in his trilogy – “Marx’s Ecology: Materialism & Nature” (2000), “The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology” (2020), and “Breaking the Bonds of Fate: Epicurus and Marx” (2025) – concluding with his Introduction to “Einstein’s ‘Why Socialism?’ The Enduring Relevance of His Classic Essay” (2025).