[lbo-talk] Marx's Rejection of a Moral Critique of Capital

[James Heartfield]

Marx’s critique of capital is indeed moral, but the moral judgment he applies is an historically contingent one, not an ahistorical standard.

Marx critiques capital from the standpoint of human development. Capital, he argues, is developed to such a point that it can only carry on as a barrier to human development – it is historically redundant.

What Marx rejects is not moral judgement as such, but that ahistorical invocation of moral absolutes which are, he argues, only the superficial reflections of the exchange process.