Corrupt Society: Marx

Abstract

No one would deny that the effect of the writings of Marx and of the great depth-psychologists, Freud and Jung, on people’s conception of morality and the aims of human life, has been immense for better or worse. It therefore seems suitable to devote rather a large proportion of this book to an exegesis and criticism of their views. One principle which I tried to establish in the first chapter will constantly be applied to the criticism of their work: that any account of human beings, from which it can be inferred that they are incapable of cognitive and moral self-transcendence, of getting to know what is true independently of their material and social milieu and acting in accordance with that knowledge, is self-destructive. Now it will be found that there is possible a ‘strong’ and a ‘weak’ interpretation of the opinions of Marx and Freud on this matter, both of which may be supported by appeal to their writings. According to the ‘strong’ interpretation, human intelligence and reason are more or less a mere reflex of other factors: the economic and social environment on the one hand, and impulses of an organic nature on the other. Since this ‘strong’ interpretation rules out cognitive and moral self-transcendence, it is self-destructive, because one may deduce from it that no-one, including Freud or Marx, thinks or writes as he does because there is good reason for him to do so.