In 'The Concept of Nature in Marx,' Alfred Schmidt examines humanity's relation to the natural world as understood by the great philosopher-economist Karl Marx, who wrote that human beings are 'part of Nature yet able to stand over against it; and this partial separation from Nature is itself part of their nature'. In Marx, industry and science are the mediation between historical man and external nature, leading either to reconciliation or mutual annihilation. Schmidt explores this tension between man and nature in Marx and shows how his understanding of nature is reflected in the work of writers such as Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin and Emst Bloch.

Alfred Schmidt was a German social scientist and the author of History and Structure: An Essay on Hegelian-Marxist and Structuralist Theories of History.