Chapter 19 Did labor create man, or did man create labor?

Question 1 from the reporter: The Beijing Museum of Natural History held an exhibition on "The Origin of Man". I noticed that Engels' quotation "Labor created man" was not quoted in the exhibition. What is the reason for this? ① This article is a record of the dialogue between Zhou Guoxing and a CCTV reporter on February 23, 1989.Originally published in the magazine "Ideological and Political Teaching", June and July 1989. Zhou Guoxing answered: "The Origin of Man" is a display of the origin of human beings. One of the main reasons why he did not directly quote the quotation "Labor creates man" is to avoid giving people the illusion that "labor" originated from ancient times. The only factor in the evolution from ape to man.Secondly, the emergence of the proposition "labor creates man" was originally Engels' plan to write a book entitled "Three Basic Forms of Slavery", but it was not completed for some reason, but the preface was left.In this preface, Engels talked about labor as the first basic condition of human life, and the role of labor "even to such an extent that we have to say, in a sense, that labor creates man himself".It can be seen from this that Engels put forward the proposition that "labor creates man" with a premise and a restrictive meaning, that is, in "a certain sense" it has to be said that "labor creates man himself".But in the past, when we quoted, we simplified it, so that there was only one sentence: "Labor created man!" In fact, this simplistic quotation does not fully represent Engels' original intention.Furthermore, from the time when the social development history education was carried out in the early days of Liberation until today, there has been great controversy in the academic circles about the proposition that "labor creates man". For example, what is "labor", that is, the meaning of "labor", There is a lot of controversy.This is also the case in foreign countries. Times are advancing, science has accumulated a lot of new data, and people's ideological understanding is also improving. The current debate is not just to explore the definition of "labor", but whether labor can create people?Even many people hold a negative attitude towards this proposition.

The display of "The Origin of Man" is popular science. It is very academic and philosophical, especially when it comes to the understanding of certain viewpoints in classic works, so we take a particularly cautious attitude, and this controversy cannot be said in a few words. Clear to affect people's way of life.I oppose the research direction of traditional philosophy, and think that it is better not to mention this proposition. In fact, in the display, we use rich historical facts and persuasive materials to integrate this basic principle in classic works into the In the display content, there is no need to "quote" this sentence.

Question 2 from the reporter: With all due respect, I have read many of your past works, and you have spent a lot of space expounding the view that "labor creates man". Please explain. Zhou Guoxing replied two: This is the fact.In many of my past works, I have indeed vigorously promoted this point of view, and I have also written research papers to expound my views on this proposition and related aspects.I have to see that at that time, I also committed a common mistake in the academic world, that is, I thought that with the classics in hand, all problems could be solved easily, and I used "quotations" to replace scientific evidence.Thinking about it now, this is really a very abnormal and lazy approach.Of course, in the process of exploration, after I came into contact with a lot of new materials and new information, it is not that I did not discover problems, and I also made a lot of new explorations and put forward many new understandings.The times are advancing. Today, people's ideological understanding has improved and their minds have been liberated. They no longer need to illustrate certain expositions in classic works. It is natural to have different understandings, and even put forward negative views.

As a person, I have always held the view that I oppose exaggerating the role of "labor" and making "labor" too sacred and mystified, and I also oppose completely obliterating the role of labor. The role in it is placed in an appropriate position. Question 3 from the reporter: Just now you said that there was a great controversy in the academic circles about "what is labor?" What happened?So how should we treat "labor"? Zhou Guoxing's answer three: What exactly is "labor"?This is a first and foremost question.The classic definition in political economy is: real labor begins with making tools.This means that labor comes after people, because "man is an animal that makes tools", this proposition was put forward by Franklin, an American scientist, and was praised by Marx, and it was also written in the book "Das Kapital".On the other hand, it also proposes the role of labor in the transition from ape to man. "Labor creates man himself".This means that before humans appeared, labor existed during the transformation of the ancient apes into humans.Whether labor appeared before or after people, and what exactly is "labor" raises questions.Obviously, "labor" here has double meanings, one is called "real labor"; the other is "non-real labor", which is the form of labor before human beings appeared.

Political economy also said: Labor contains three elements, namely the laborer itself, the object of labor and the tool of labor.Labor is a productive activity using tools.However, the behavior of using tools has appeared in the embryonic form in the animal world, so here we can see that the same "labor" has three forms, that is, animal-style "labor"; Labor" (not real labor); human "labour" (real labor).Doesn't this show that human labor itself also has a process of germination, production and development?There has been some debate in academic circles about what labor is.

I have explored the meaning of "labor", and I have also explored the "in a sense" that Engels said "in a sense, it has to be said that labor creates man himself".Of course, "people" are involved here. What exactly is a "person"?Man is not only an animal, but also a special animal (someone suggested that it should be called "advanced animal"). He is the most social animal with conscious initiative.Since man is an animal, his law of evolution must obey the law of biological evolution; as a special animal, man has his particularity in the general law of biological evolution.

The driving force of biological evolution is "the interaction of heredity and adaptation", and the evolution process is completed through natural selection.The heredity of organisms is both conservative and variable, while adaptation reflects the relationship between organisms and the environment. Whether they can adapt to the environment is the prerequisite for the survival and development of organisms. The interaction between heredity and adaptation promotes the variation of species and promotes biological In evolution, adaptation is the dominant aspect that causes variation.This reflects the essential difference between humans and animals. Animals adapt to the environment through changes in their own bodies, while humans use their own efforts to create new living conditions that did not exist in nature. own survival and development.

In my opinion, labor, in its essence, is actually a special means of adaptation, or a special way of adaptation.I divide the special adaptation means of "human labor" into two forms of "low-level" and "high-level". During the transition from ape to human, the labor form of human ancestors who frequently used natural tools is the labor of low-level human beings; When people perform labor with the tools they make, it is the labor of a higher form of man.It is the low-level labor in the process of transformation from ape to man that plays a non-negligible role in promoting the birth of human beings.Therefore, "labor" is not a mysterious thing. It has its own process of generation and development. It is just a special means or way of adaptation for human beings.I think this is probably the meaning of "in a sense".

Question 4 from the reporter: So, does labor create man or man creates labor? Zhou Guoxing's answer four: The crux of the problem is that in the past we only emphasized the "labor" activity itself, while ignoring another more important aspect, that is, the subject of labor.Engels once criticized the one-sidedness of some political economists who believed that "labor is the source of all wealth".Engels pointed out that this is not right. Labor is the source of all wealth only together with nature, because nature provides materials, and labor can create wealth based on them.By the same token, no one can be created with labor alone without a labor subject.Only when the main body of labor, that is, the ancestors of human beings, has fully developed his potential—in fact, a high degree of intelligence—human beings can be born.The reason why man becomes the "spirit of all things", where is the spirit, is that he has intelligence, or wisdom, that is higher than all other animals - that is, man has developed self-consciousness and initiative, so that labor itself can be transformed from low-level to Advanced forms develop, so in a sense, people also create labor itself.Furthermore, it was the human ancestors who, through their own efforts, broke free from the shackles of the animal kingdom and liberated themselves.

Real labor is created by man, and man himself is also created by man himself. This is my further understanding now. Reporter Question 5: Why do some scholars believe that labor cannot create people?What is their basis? Zhou Guoxing's answer five: This is because the new data accumulated by modern paleoanthropology and its adjacent disciplines have revealed many facts that were little known in the past, resulting in many new hypotheses and theories, some of which are directly related to " Labor creates man" proposition to challenge. Taking upright walking as an example, upright walking is a very important link in the process of human origin. It can be said that without upright walking, human ancestors would not have developed in the direction of human beings. A step that determines meaning.There are many opinions on how people stand upright. From the viewpoint of labor, standing upright is because the upper limbs (hands) are more engaged in operational activities and freed from supporting functions. Due to the division of labor between the upper and lower limbs (hands and feet), human So stand upright.But it is now known that human ancestors stood upright before the appearance of tools and weapons.The earliest evidence of upright human beings has been found in the Lai Toli area of ​​Tanzania. At the level of 3.7 million years ago, footprints that clearly belonged to upright walking were found, and the crudest tools (stone tools) that can be found so far are only About 2 million years ago, many scholars deny the view that walking upright is for the convenience of using tools and throwing weapons.

So why do people stand upright?Some experts believe that when human ancestors first came down from the forest to open grasslands, they had to stand up in the tall grass in order to guard against the attack of beasts, so as to find the beasts in time and avoid them. Over time, people stood upright (warning) Say).Wheeler, a lecturer in vertebrate psychology and evolution at the Liverpool Institute of Technology, wrote in the "New Scientist" weekly that when early humans moved from forests to open plains, they would be attacked by strong sunlight and high temperatures. Exhalation is used to lower body temperature, and the huge and fragile brain will be injured by an increase in body temperature of 1-2 degrees Celsius.However, when a person stands up, the area of ​​the body surface exposed to sunlight is greatly reduced, which is a very effective way to keep the head cool.So he thinks that standing upright stems from keeping the head cool from heatstroke, not for the sake of freeing the arms (keep the head cool). There is another theory that is quite special, that is, the "aquatic theory" that human ancestors once lived in water, which created a series of special shapes and functions of the human body, including upright posture.The reason why this theory emerged is that there are many morphological features and functions on the human body that are difficult to explain by terrestrial evolution. These features include: bare and smooth skin with a thick subcutaneous fat layer; the arrangement of the remaining body hair is streamlined; The special shape and position of the sex organs; man is the only animal that cries, and tears contain salt, etc.Therefore, in 1960, British marine biologist Hardy put forward the "aquatic theory", arguing that in the late Miocene or early Pliocene, a group of ancient apes living on the coast of Africa were isolated due to severe drought, in order to escape the attack of beasts And it is easy to forage and turn into the water to live.Under the strong evolutionary pressure generated by drastic changes in lifestyle, human ancestors acquired a series of the aforementioned characteristics that modern humans possess in a relatively short period of time.Especially for living in water, in order to raise one's head to breathe on the water surface, one also needs to tread water while in the water, which makes the body stand upright.One of the most common characteristics of animals adapting to life in water is hairlessness. Human hairlessness is the result of life in water. Due to diving in water, the remaining hairs are arranged in a streamlined manner, and even the human body itself is also streamlined. "Aquatic Theory" is accepted and respected by many scholars.Australia once filmed a TV film of "babies in water", which was also used as an example of "aquatic theory", that is, those babies who can't walk yet move freely in the water, as if the water is their hometown. Interestingly, some paleoanthropologists believe that some new discoveries of paleoanthropology also provide evidence for this theory: in the 1960s, paleoanthropology believed that walking upright was in conflict with the delivery of babies with big heads, and that standing upright made the structure of the pelvis Difficulty adapting to the delivery of a baby with a large human head.Later, a fossil of Australopithecus afarensis with 40% of the skeleton was found in Ethiopia - the so-called "Lucy Maiden" skeleton.It is 2.9 million to 3.2 million years away from this year, and at the same time, the remains of Australopithecus, which seems to be a family member, were found in a nearby location, including four children and an infant with almost complete skull fossils.Studies have shown that the baby's brain is actually not big, and it matches the size of Lucy's teenage pelvis.The morphological features of Lucy's skeleton also suggest she was erect.So how did Lucy get upright?This is related to the "aquatic theory". Scientists speculate that when the offspring of aquatic apes return to live on land, they are already individuals with bare skin and small heads. Attached to the mother, needs to be hugged.In this way, Lucy had to walk with both feet in order to hold the child, and the father of the child also needed to walk with both feet when he returned home with food in both hands. Human uprightness was formed and perfected in this way, so walking upright is related to holding the child! "Aquatic Theory" is a new theory developed in recent years. It is very novel, but it needs to be treated with caution. What was discussed above is the issue of erection, as well as the issue of tools.Recently, an expert team led by Sussman, a professor of anthropology at the State University of New York, studied some hand bone fossils found in the stout Australopithecus site in South Africa from 1929 to 1983.Studies have shown that these hand bones have a human-like accurate grip, and it is entirely possible to make and use tools.Some stone tools discovered at the same time as the stout Australopithecus in the past are often considered to be made by another advanced Australopithecus (capable man).And A. stout is just a vegan who can't use tools. Now it is proved that A. stout can also make tools.Accordingly, Professor Sussman, writing in the journal Science, declares that this research not only shakes the simple and comforting view that tools have enabled our evolution to succeed, but also overturns the fact that our ancestors had The theory that climbing to the top of the evolutionary ladder is based on the ability to make tools.In other words, even if human ancestors can make tools, they may not necessarily be able to evolve into humans. The above is just a brief answer to your question, in fact the situation is much more complicated! Question 6 from the reporter: Here I want to ask, no matter whether labor creates people or people create labor, don't you deny the "creative" role of labor? Zhou Guoxing's answer six: I think this question should be explored at a deeper level.In fact, the mechanism of biological evolution is very complicated, and it must be considered fundamentally, that is, from the perspective of heredity. From the point of view of modern genetics, the internal cause of biological evolution is the recombination of genetic factors - "gene", the mutation of "gene" and the aberration of the carrier of gene (ie chromosome).Acquired traits cannot be inherited without the participation of genetic material. Generally speaking, acquired traits are not inherited. The process mentioned by "labor creates man" is essentially a problem of "acquired inheritance", which is difficult to stand on in genetics. Modern genetics shows that human beings have 23 pairs of chromosomes. After meiosis, sex cells—sperm and eggs are haploid, that is, each sex cell has only 23 pairs of chromosomes instead of 23.When the sperm and egg cells combine, the haploid returns to diploid again, and there are 23 pairs of chromosomes. When fertilization combines, these chromosomes are randomly combined, and the number of possible combinations is extremely large, almost 800,000!In addition, studies have also shown that 23 pairs of chromosomes contain more than 10,000 alleles.If each pair of genes can form three "genotypes" of the body, then 10,000 pairs of alleles can form genotypes up to 3 to the 10,000th power.These all illustrate the great variability of genetic material.Of course, in order to transform genotype (that is, a certain possibility) into a "phenotype" (that is, reality), certain conditions are required, which are achieved through the interaction of heredity and adaptation through the process of natural selection.Here adaptation is the dominant aspect causing variation, and it acts as a "screen", that is, to "select" and "preserve" certain genetic variations.Therefore, from the perspective of genetics, labor, as a special means or way of adapting to the distant ancestors of human beings, its function is not "creation", but only "selection" and "preservation". Man is chosen, or labor retains man. Question 7 from the reporter: I would like to ask, in my opinion, isn't "choice" the same as "creation"? Zhou Guoxing's answer seven: No, you can't think of it this way. To choose is to choose something that already exists, and to create is to create something that didn't exist before. Just as "discovery" and "invention" are two different concepts, discovery is to find out what exists objectively. To invent is to create something that did not exist before.It is not the same thing that labor chooses or preserves man as it creates man.Of course, there should be no misunderstanding here. It is not a genetic mutation that produces a "labor" gene, but mainly the anatomical and physiological factors involved in labor.As a special way or means of adaptation, labor creates new living conditions. The mechanism of its action lies in selecting or retaining the anatomical and physiological conditions that are beneficial to the body engaged in this activity. Of course, the actual situation is far more complicated.We still don't understand many aspects. If we proceed from this concept, we can say that it is labor that chooses man himself, and man creates labor itself. Reporter Question 8: From this point of view, the origin of human beings and the origin of human beings are indeed a complicated process, which cannot be solved by "labor" alone... Zhou Guoxing Answer Eight: Yes.The origin of man, the process of human origin is indeed very complicated, its motivation and mechanism are very complicated, involving factors such as genetics, anatomy and physiology, evolution, human development history, etc. Part of it is a product of society.It is not the unilateral factors of biology or sociology that can promote the emergence and evolution of man, a creature with dual identities. In my opinion, in the process of human origin and evolution, in addition to labor, the brain—the material basis of human high-level thinking activities is also a very important factor, and it is a very critical factor in the variation and selection of genetic factors. It has immeasurable potential, and it is precisely because of this potential that human beings have embarked on the process of creating themselves.In addition, the factor of "sex" is a very active and powerful factor in biological evolution. Only after the development of the biological world has the differentiation of sexes can the infinite and vast world of biological evolution be opened up.Undoubtedly, it also played a powerful role in the origin and development of human beings, but we still know very little about it.Labor is not something like anatomical physiology or genetic traits. It is essentially a social function of human beings. This category also includes language, social structure, etc., especially human beings have the ability to learn. Both play an important role in the evolutionary process, but we have only studied it very superficially.In short, so far, science has not yet fully explained the motivation and mechanism of human origin, which requires us to work hard to explore, and we need to work hard to solve it down-to-earth.