[lbo-talk] On the Threat from Religion

farmelantj at juno.com farmelantj at juno.com
Fri Nov 21 06:44:10 PST 2008


In reference to Marx and Marxism, the philosopher Allen Wood has argued that for Marx, moral principles like justice cannot be applied to modes of production or historical epochs as a whole. Hence, according to Wood, for Marx it made no sense to complain that capitalism is unjust or immoral, although it would still make sense to speak of the morality of practices within a given mode of production, such as the assertion that theft is immoral.

Richard W. Miller in his book, *Analyzing Marx* argued that Marxism does not attempt to apply what moral philosophers would call the "moral point of view" to social systems like capitalism. So therefore while for Miller, Marxism does make normative judgments concerning social practices and institutions, it does not necessarily make moral judgments. The distinction between moral judgments and other kinds of normative judgments has been long a fixture of certain strands of analytical moral philosophy such as reflected in the work of philosophers like Paul W. Taylor, Kai Nielsen, Kurt Baier etc. So likewise, it may be the case thatwhile Marx and Marxists do make various sorts of normative judgments concerning capitalism and other social systems, they are not necessarily making moral judgments.

Jim Farmelant -- Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote: Philp Pilkington wrote:
> "and even if interpreted
> that way is STILL not an ethical principle but a practice dictated by
> the development of a communist society, a social not an ethical
> principle, and actually a practice rather than a principle."
>
> That seems like linguistic sophistry to me. Social/ethical;
> practice/principle, these are plays on words. Ethics is always related to
> the rest of society, its always dialectically grounded in the social link,
> even when it appears otherwise. As for practice and principle it seems the
> same thing, principles never meant anything unless they were practiced...

How about this: ethics is the social practice of justifying existing patterns of behavior in a society. (Ethical principles do not "drive" individual behavior and social relations; just the opposite.)

Miles

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