[lbo-talk] Re: Rise of anti-democratic liberalism

Ted Winslow egwinslow at rogers.com
Sat Jun 19 06:25:03 PDT 2004


The ethical doctrine associated with Marx's "materialism" embodies the ideas of a "will proper" and a "universal will."

"The Will Proper, or the Higher Appetite, is (a) pure indeterminateness of the Ego, which as such has no limitation or a content which is immediately extant through nature but is indifferent towards any and every determinateness. (b) The Ego can, at the same time, pass over to a determinateness and make a choice of some one or other and then actualize

it." (Hegel, The Philosophical Propaedeutic p. 2)

The "Universal Will" is "the Will which is Lawful and Just or in accordance with Reason." (Philosophical Propaedeutic p. 1)

Marx adds to this the claim that the "good" that constitutes the content of the "universal will" is the activity of creating and appropriating beauty and truth within relations of mutual recognition. Such relations are the opposite of coercive. Moreover, they can't be created coercively. The end determines the means with "the rigidity of a law." The "good" in this sense can only be fully actualized by "egos" "indifferent towards any and every determinateness" freely choosing to make it the determinate content of their willing and then actualizing it.

What is the preferable ethical doctrine derivable from ontologies such as "structuralism" that have no logical space for these ideas?

Ted



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