On the Possibility of Marxist Ethics

Year 2018, , 131 - 155, 21.07.2018

Buket Korkut Raptis

https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.446447

Abstract

Marx avoided elaborating
an ethical theory and criticized utopian socialism. Although Marx’s
attitude towards these two issues is discussed separately in the
literature, we will argue that they stem from the same ground in Marx.
It is Marx’s devotion to scientific socialism that grounds his
criticisms. We will first discuss the opposition between utopian and
scientific socialism as Marx understood it. After elaborating some
Marxist approaches in this debate, we will argue that any attempt at
reconciling Marxism with ethics must be utopian in nature. Finally, we
will give some Nietzschean arguments for explaining why a conception of
utopia is indispensable for developing a Marxist theory of ethics.

Keywords

Marx, Nietzsche, ethics, morality, utopia, revolution

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