Marxist Ethics And Ethical Theory

Abstract

Two recent trends highlight the problem of the relation between Marx's ethics and ethical theory. To left-wing radicals in the West and to revisionist philosophers in Eastern Europe, the basis of Marx's ethics has been sought in the concept of alienation. To Soviet philosophers I and to old-line Marxists, Engels' progressive and scientific world view continues to be regarded as the foundation of Marx's ethics. Yet neither of these trends, Kamenka argues, has been distinguished by a philosophical grasp of the problems that must be solved by a science of morals. Neither has shown an interest in dealing with ethical theory freshly and critically; consequently, neither has come to a full appreciation of Marx's contributions to ethical theory and to the science of moral behaviour.