On Nov 21, 2008, at 9:44 AM, farmelantj at juno.com wrote:
> 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.
What's the difference, really? Sometimes I think that Marx's hostility towards moral or ethical judgments comes from contempt for the admittedly sentimental positions of utopians and a desire instead to be scientific. But if you don't have some moral or ethical objection to exploitation, why do you have a problem with capitalism?
Doug