Major Development of Productivity Theory
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for survival, life and production, including all kinds of ecosystems and their environments and resources. This is the ecological definition of “natural ecosystem.”
It is clear that the idea “environmental productivity is also a kind of productivity”
contained in General Secretary Xi’s remarks is equal to “ecological productivity is
also a kind of productivity,” which is essentially the same as Marx’s “natural productivity is also a kind of productivity” in scientific definition. However, Xi’s profound
thought proposed today when mankind is facing a global environmental crisis has
more contemporary imprints than Marx’s view put forth hundreds of years ago, and
is therefore of greater realistic significance. That is why we say Xi’s scientific statement has inherited and developed the Marxist view that “natural productivity is also
a kind of productivity.”
That General Secretary Xi Jinping’s remark that “protecting and improving the
environment is protecting and increasing productivity” is a major development of
productivity theory is also reflected in its implication that “the capability of protecting
and improving the ecological environment is also a kind of productivity,” which
deepens and enriches the connotations of “productivity”.
For many years, the mainstream economic academia has defined productivity as
“the human power of understanding, utilizing and reforming nature and obtaining
materials from nature” or “the human power of utilizing and reforming nature.”
Therefore, productivity is often generalized as the relation between man and nature,
whereby the human power of reforming and conquering nature is emphasized. That’s
how “productivity” has been understood since the Industrial Revolution, or during
the entire industrial civilization.
Based on this understanding, man has always placed itself outside or above the
natural world, taken nature as a kind of alien force, and regarded productivity development as a one-way process of man claiming resources from nature. While doing
that, it has turned a blind eye to the significance of nature providing man with
various products and services, to the importance of man protecting and improving
such natural functions, and to the bearing capacity of the natural ecosystem. The
result is that while man has made tremendous economic and social achievements
and significantly improved their material and cultural life, the natural ecosystem has
suffered from ever more serious damages. Various kinds of mineral, water and land
resources are depleted, the area of forests and wetlands is shrinking sharply, water
and soil loss is serious, land desertification and stony desertification have aggravated,
air, water and soil pollution is grave, biodiversity is diminishing, acid rain is causing
more damages, the ozone layer is destroyed and depleted, and global greenhouse gas
emission is increasing… All these have led to a slew of worsening environmental
issues such as global warming, which have greatly affected the sustainable socioeconomic development and the sustainable improvement of our material and cultural life,
even affected human health directly. Facts have proven that the traditional definition
of “productivity” is neither feasible nor sustainable.
From a philosophical point of view, the traditional definition of “productivity”
does not conform to the law of unity of opposites advocated by Marxist material
dialectics for several reasons.
197
for survival, life and production, including all kinds of ecosystems and their environments and resources. This is the ecological definition of “natural ecosystem.”
It is clear that the idea “environmental productivity is also a kind of productivity”
contained in General Secretary Xi’s remarks is equal to “ecological productivity is
also a kind of productivity,” which is essentially the same as Marx’s “natural productivity is also a kind of productivity” in scientific definition. However, Xi’s profound
thought proposed today when mankind is facing a global environmental crisis has
more contemporary imprints than Marx’s view put forth hundreds of years ago, and
is therefore of greater realistic significance. That is why we say Xi’s scientific statement has inherited and developed the Marxist view that “natural productivity is also
a kind of productivity.”
That General Secretary Xi Jinping’s remark that “protecting and improving the
environment is protecting and increasing productivity” is a major development of
productivity theory is also reflected in its implication that “the capability of protecting
and improving the ecological environment is also a kind of productivity,” which
deepens and enriches the connotations of “productivity”.
For many years, the mainstream economic academia has defined productivity as
“the human power of understanding, utilizing and reforming nature and obtaining
materials from nature” or “the human power of utilizing and reforming nature.”
Therefore, productivity is often generalized as the relation between man and nature,
whereby the human power of reforming and conquering nature is emphasized. That’s
how “productivity” has been understood since the Industrial Revolution, or during
the entire industrial civilization.
Based on this understanding, man has always placed itself outside or above the
natural world, taken nature as a kind of alien force, and regarded productivity development as a one-way process of man claiming resources from nature. While doing
that, it has turned a blind eye to the significance of nature providing man with
various products and services, to the importance of man protecting and improving
such natural functions, and to the bearing capacity of the natural ecosystem. The
result is that while man has made tremendous economic and social achievements
and significantly improved their material and cultural life, the natural ecosystem has
suffered from ever more serious damages. Various kinds of mineral, water and land
resources are depleted, the area of forests and wetlands is shrinking sharply, water
and soil loss is serious, land desertification and stony desertification have aggravated,
air, water and soil pollution is grave, biodiversity is diminishing, acid rain is causing
more damages, the ozone layer is destroyed and depleted, and global greenhouse gas
emission is increasing… All these have led to a slew of worsening environmental
issues such as global warming, which have greatly affected the sustainable socioeconomic development and the sustainable improvement of our material and cultural life,
even affected human health directly. Facts have proven that the traditional definition
of “productivity” is neither feasible nor sustainable.
From a philosophical point of view, the traditional definition of “productivity”
does not conform to the law of unity of opposites advocated by Marxist material
dialectics for several reasons.