Originally posted by
[email protected] 16, 2007 04:20 am
Hey, I will be giving a presentation in my CAPP Ethics class on a chapter/section from the textbook entitled "Marx Against Morality." The entire class and teacher know that I am the "left" part of the class and thus I was assigned this section. To get to the point, I was just wondering what ideas you had on the matter and if you know of any good sources that state exactly what Marx's view on morality was. Thanks for all the input.
Most of the academic works on this topic are quite unsatisfactory. They tend to get themselves all tied up in knots and confused.
There is a repeated tendency to rationalise what Marx wrote in search of coherent moral philosophy, which really isnt there - and shouldnt be there.
I personally would recommend the final section of Trotsky's 1938 Their Morals and Ours as a guide to an initial presentation:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/wo...38/1938-mor.htm (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1938/1938-mor.htm)
The advantage of these few pages is that they outline some key ideas which can be presented positively rather than wondoering what Marx did or did not say. The disadvantage of this approach is that you have to be prepared to base your presentation with the idea that Marx was a representative of a certain perspective, the revolutionary communist position - and that it is the position of that stance on morality that is interesting rather than fetishised speculation on what morality might have resided in the hidden recesses of the mind of one dead man.
The problem here is not so much what Marx said - or more to the point did not say. The problem here is the pre-concpetions of your audience. They will want you to outline the philosophical defence of socialist moral 'values', but the historical materialist view means no such defence is necessary or even legitimate; for Marx this kind of approach was characteristic of the youth of socialism, of its utopian early days.
Marx believed socialism was a political movement and not a moral philosophy. As it matured it outgrew the need to base its politics on moral philosophy - like all political movements. Hence he did not write about morality. Of course he has been criticised for this by many who say a political movement must have a moral philosophy. But Marxism says no to that and - observing other political parties and movements - that is surely correct - moral philosophy is quickly replaced by the values embodied in the movements as institutions of society. FOr this reason, I would place much emphasis on the arguments in 'Socialism Utopian and Scientific' by Engels.
Be prepared to run into conflict with the whole basis on which your class is constructed.