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Marx and the abolition of morality

Marx and the abolition of morality J. Value lnquiry 18:283-297 {1984). 01984 Martinus Ni/hoff Publishers, Dordrecht. Printed in the Netherlands. PHILIP J. KAIN Stanford University Recently, there has been a good deal of writing on Marx's ethical views. Almost all of it, however, has assumed that there is an essential unity to Marx's thought and thus that his views on ethics remain fundamentally unchanged throughout his writings. This view I believe to be untenable. I will argue elsewhere that in his earliest writings Marx held an ethical theory which was tied to his concept of es- sence, and that in his later writings (from the Grundrisse of 1857-8 on) he again revives an ethical theory. But in the middle period of his thought (from the German ldeology of 1845-6 until 1856), I hope to show in this article, Marx considered morality to be an ideological illusion. The historical materialist method which Marx develops in the German ldeology starts by studying the material production of life. It studies the mode of produc- tion of a given society, the form of intercourse (or the relations of production) created by and connected with this mode of production, and the reciprocal inter- action that occurs between the forces and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of Value Inquiry Springer Journals

Marx and the abolition of morality

Kain, Philip
The Journal of Value Inquiry , Volume 18 (4) – Jun 14, 2004
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References (1)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright
Subject
Philosophy; Ontology; Ethics; International Political Economy; Public International Law; Philosophy, general
ISSN
0022-5363
eISSN
1573-0492
DOI
10.1007/BF00144768
Publisher site
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Abstract

J. Value lnquiry 18:283-297 {1984). 01984 Martinus Ni/hoff Publishers, Dordrecht. Printed in the Netherlands. PHILIP J. KAIN Stanford University Recently, there has been a good deal of writing on Marx's ethical views. Almost all of it, however, has assumed that there is an essential unity to Marx's thought and thus that his views on ethics remain fundamentally unchanged throughout his writings. This view I believe to be untenable. I will argue elsewhere that in his earliest writings Marx held an ethical theory which was tied to his concept of es- sence, and that in his later writings (from the Grundrisse of 1857-8 on) he again revives an ethical theory. But in the middle period of his thought (from the German ldeology of 1845-6 until 1856), I hope to show in this article, Marx considered morality to be an ideological illusion. The historical materialist method which Marx develops in the German ldeology starts by studying the material production of life. It studies the mode of produc- tion of a given society, the form of intercourse (or the relations of production) created by and connected with this mode of production, and the reciprocal inter- action that occurs between the forces and

Journal

The Journal of Value Inquiry – Springer Journals

Published: Jun 14, 2004

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