On the Possibility of Marxist Ethics

Marx avoided elaborating an ethical theory and criticized utopian so cialism. Although Marx’s attitude towards these two issues is discussed sepa rately 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 uto pian 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.

Marxist Etiğin Olanağı Üzerine

Marx bir etik kuramı geliştirmekten kaçınmış ve ütopyacı sosyalistleri eleş tirmiştir. Her ne kadar Marx'ın bu iki konuya olan yaklaşımı felsefi kaynaklarda farklı konular olarak tartışılmışsa da, biz bu ikisinin Marx'ta aynı kaynağa da yandığını savunacağız. Marx'ın bu eleştirilerinin kaynağında onun bilimsel sos yalizme olan adanmışlığı yatmaktadır. Öncelikli olarak Marx'ın anladığı şekliyle ütopyacı ve bilimsel sosyalizm arasındaki farkı tartışacağız. Bu tartışmada yer alan Marksist bakış açılarını özetledikten sonra Marksizmi etikle uzlaştırmaya çalışan her çabanın özünde ütopyacı olması gerektiğini ileri süreceğiz. Son ola rak, Marksist bir etik kuramı geliştirmek için neden bir ütopya kurgulamaya ih tiyaç olduğunu Nietzscheci argümanlar vererek destekleyeceğiz.

PDF

___

Yassour, A. (1983). Communism and Utopia: Marx, Engels and Fourier. Studies in Soviet Thought, 26 (3), 217-227.

Tucker, R. C. (Ed.) (1978). The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Thomas, P. (2008). Marxism and Scientific Socialism from Engels to Althusser. New York: Routledge & Taylor and Francis.

Paden, R. (2002). Marx's Critique of the Utopian Socialists. Utopian Studies, 13 (2), 67-91.

Owen, R. (1991). A New Way of Society and Other Writings. (Ed. G. Claeys). London: Penguin Books.

Nietzsche, F. (2011). On the Genealogy of Morality. (Trans. C. Diethe). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marx, K. (1988). Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. (Trans. M. Milligan). New York: Prometheus Books.

Marx, K. & Engels, F. 2009. The Civil War in France. London: Dodo Press.

Marx, K. & Engels, F. (2008). The Manifesto of the Communist Party. (Trans. S. Moore) London: Pluto Press.

Marx, K. & Engels, F. (1998). The German Ideology. New York: Prometheus Books.

Marx, K. & Engels, F. (1980). On the Paris Commune. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

Luxemburg, R. (2008). The Essential Rosa Luxemburg: Reform or Revolution and The Mass Strike. Ed. H. Scott). Chicago: Haymarker Books.

Lovell, D. W. (2004). Marx's Utopian Legacy. The European Legacy, 9 (5), 629-640.

Levitas, R. (2004). Beyond Bourgeois Right: Freedom, Equality and Utopia in Marx and Morris. The European Legacy, 9 (5), 605-618.

Leopold, D. (2007). Socialism and (the Rejection of) Utopia. Journal of Political Ideologies, 12 (3), 219-237.

Kumar, K. (1990). Utopian Thought and Communal Practice. Theory and Society, 19, 1-35.

Jal, M. (2010). The Irresistible Science of Karl Marx. Social Scientist, 38 (5-6), 22-34.

Geoghegan, V. (2008). Utopianism and Marxism. Bern: Verlag Peter Lang.

Fourier, C. (1971). The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier: Selected Texts on Work, Love and Passionate Attraction. (Eds. & trans. J. Beecher & R. Bienvenu). Boston: Beacon Press.

Engels, F. (1908). Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. (Trans. E. Aveling). Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Company.

Durkheim, E. (2009). Socialism and Saint Simon. (Trans. C. Sattler). London: Routledge & Taylor and Francis.

Blackledge P. (2012). Marxism and Ethics: Freedom, Desire and Revolution. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Bernstein, E. (1993). The Preconditions of Socialism. (Ed. & trans. H. Tudor). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Althusser, L. (2003). The Humanist Controversy and Other Writings. (Trans. C. M. Goshgarian). London: Verso Publications.