Marxism, Morality and Moral Philosophy

Abstract

This chapter aims to show how Marxism poses a challenge for morality, how in turn morality poses problems for Marxism, and how a variety of contemporary Marxists have responded to these problems. It argues that a Marxist is not committed to nihilism or to the belief that all moral reflection, including his own, can be nothing but ideological twaddle. Contemporary Anglo-American philosophers who have taken Marx seriously have for most part fought shy of taking firm stands on the relation of fact to value. Morality, on any Marxist account, must be part of the superstructure and hence, it is natural to say, it must be ideological. A Marxist sociology of morals shows that moral beliefs have a tendency to function ideologically. There remain ‘relativistic problems’ about Marxism vis-a-vis ethics which might show that if historical materialism is true morality totters. A socialist, even a Marxist anti-moralist, has those values available to him, and they will, and should, guide his practice.