Glossary

Nonhuman Species-Being

For Marx, “species-being” [Gattungswesen] designates a mode of human self-perception constituted by the totality of social relations within which we are historically embedded. Unlike fixed ideas of human nature—such as Hobbes’ belief in innate greed—species-being is mutable and shaped by social conditions, embraced by Marx in sensual and intellectual ways, [1] determined by the organization of social life in specific historical-material conditions of production. According to Marx, while the individual satisfaction of needs belongs to all animals, humans are distinct in their conscious intentionality “as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence.” [3] The human capacity to render its own species-hood an object of sense, gestures to a relational understanding of each other as material producers, effectively ‘socializing’ individuality, which concerns less ‘oneself,’ but rather being-with. Due to the autoinstitution of social and material environments by humans that are incarnations of historical modes of production, [2] Marx warns of the tendency to transform such ideas into “eternal laws of nature”. [4] In his critique of Capitalist modes of production, Marx emphasized that the human has become alienated from its collective species-being, along with its estrangement from the products of labor, with the further consequence of estranging us from one another. [5] Species-being thus names the conscious transformability of our self-conception as humanity that transcends the sheer fulfillment of individual needs towards the overcoming of such instances of alienation.

The legacy of species-being in early capitalism persists today as production-driven systems contribute to the climate emergency, threatening both human and nonhuman life. As planetary thought emphasizes interdependencies between species, reimagining species-being beyond its anthropocentric origins becomes essential. [6] Scholars Hannah Fair and Matthew McMullen argue that expanding the concept of labor to include nonhuman agents helps us understand alienation more fully. [7] By placing species-being within a planetary framework, we can recognize the shared material struggles of both humans and nonhumans, fostering a broadened perspective on alienation and spaces for interspecies solidarities. [8] 

Expanding species-being to include nonhuman labor reveals how animals and plants contribute to capital production, much like feminist-Marxism has highlighted the undervalued care labor essential to social reproduction. An anthropocentric view of species-being disavows nonhuman historical roles and limits our understanding of planetary coexistence as a shared effort to regenerate livable worlds. [9] Geographer Elizabeth Johnson argues that species-being has always been more-than-human, shaped by evolving production processes and interdependencies. Nonhuman laborers—such as workhorses, bees, and oxen—have historically transformed nature alongside humans. [10] A planetary perspective encourages interspecies solidarity, orienting labor towards the production of use value, rather than surplus value; [11] and recognizing nonhuman contributions without naturalizing labor itself. [12]

[1] Paul Santilli, “Marx on Species-Being and Social Essence,” in Studies in Soviet Thought #13, 1973, 76-88.
[2] Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977), 72.
[3] Karl Marx, “Part I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook,” in The German Ideology (1845), (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 1998), 37.
[4] Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party: II. Proletarians and Communists,” trans. Samuel Moore, 1848. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
[5] Ibid., 75.
[6] Hannah Fair and Matthew McMullen, “Toward a Theory of Nonhuman Species-Being,” in Environmental Humanities 2023, 195–214. https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/15/2/195/380194/Toward-a-Theory-of-Nonhuman-Species-Being
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Hannah Fair and Matthew McMullen, “Toward a Theory of Nonhuman Species-Being”.
[12] Ibid.

Author: Patricia Reed