Research Of James O ’Connor’s Ecological Critique Of Capitalism

Since the 20 th century,with the rise of the new scientific and technological revolution,capitalism has entered a period of rapid development.In order to achieve the goal of capital accumulation,the capitalist countries have carried out unlimited expansion to the outside world.This expansion is bound to be accompanied by the wanton exploitation and destruction of natural resources,which eventually led to a serious ecological crisis.With the outbreak of the ecological crisis,countries are increasingly affected by the ecological crisis,and this problem has gradually begun to be paid attention to by countries around the world.It is in this context that contemporary ecological research was born.Some Marxist scholars believed that the combination of ecology and Marxism can not only give play to the theoretical advantages of Marxism,but also reflect the ecological methods in dealing with ecological problems,so as to effectively solve the capitalist ecological crisis,which led to the emergence of ecological Marxism,James O’Connor is one of the representatives of ecological Marxism.On the research road of ecological Marxism,James O’Connor fully excavated and absorbed Marxist ideological theory,combined with his understanding of the Frankfurt School’s discussion on the relationship between man and nature and the idea of liberating technology,integrated ecology and system theory,and finally put forward a unique capitalist ecological critical thought.This thought first affirmed the role of production conditions(mainly means means of production here)in the capitalist production process,and then pointed out that the contradiction between productive forces,production relations and production conditions is the second contradiction of capitalism.The first contradiction(the contradiction between productivity and production relations)leads to the capitalist economic crisis,and the second contradiction leads to the capitalist ecological crisis.By discussing the double contradiction,O’Connor further criticized capitalism.He believed that although the triggering conditions and forms of the dual crisis were different,they could influence and transform each other.For capitalist countries,only through their own improvement and reform,without revolution from the fundamental system,can not completely solve the double contradiction,but will further intensify the double contradiction,leading to the double crisis more and more intense.Therefore,O’Connor pointed out that only ecological socialism is the only way out.His thought enriches the ecological connotation of Marxism,provides a new way to solve the ecological crisis of globalization,and also provides important inspiration and theoretical basis for the construction of ecological civilization in China.