Agreed. I can’t think of any either. Condemnation in general only pisses off people, I think? But moral reasoning -- and hence appeal to morality — to me both unavoidable and vital. The question of Marx and morality has intrigued me from the first day I joined the list. The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy presents a good discussion of the issues: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/#5, at least to a non-Marxist like me. The conclusion they draw seems to match the impression I have gathered from discussions here and elsewhere:
> On a broad understanding, in which morality, or perhaps better to say ethics, is concerning with the idea of living well, it seems that communism can be assessed favourably in this light. One compelling argument is that Marx's career simply makes no sense unless we can attribute such a belief to him. But beyond this we can be brief in that the considerations adduced in section 2 above apply again. Communism clearly advances human flourishing, in Marx's view. The only reason for denying that, in Marx's vision, it would amount to a good society is a theoretical antipathy to the word ‘good’. And here the main point is that, in Marx's view, communism would not be brought about by high-minded benefactors of humanity. Quite possibly his determination to retain this point of difference between himself and the Utopian socialists led him to disparage the importance of morality to a degree that goes beyond the call of theoretical necessity.
In other words, the use or avoidance of moral reasoning seems to be a theoretical preference, IMHO. Not being a reductionist, and having seen the success of moral arguments, I tend to favour its use.
—ravi
P.S: also from the above:
"Much of Marx's description of capitalism — his use of the words ‘embezzlement’, ‘robbery’ and ‘exploitation’ — belie the official account. Arguably, the only satisfactory way of understanding this issue is, once more, from G.A. Cohen, who proposes that Marx believed that capitalism was unjust, but did not believe that he believed it was unjust. In other words, Marx, like so many of us, did not have perfect knowledge of his own mind. In his explicit reflections on the justice of capitalism he was able to maintain his official view. But in less guarded moments his real view slips out, even if never in explicit language. Such an interpretation is bound to be controversial, but it makes good sense of the texts."