Upcoming Events

International | Anti-Capitalism

no events match your query!

New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Britain ?To Lose a Pub a Day? as Labour?s Tax Raid Bites Thu Jul 10, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
One pub will close every day this year as Labour?s tax raid makes it "impossible to make a profit", with 33% of sales revenue now going to the taxman, the British Beer and Pub Association has warned.
The post Britain “To Lose a Pub a Day” as Labour’s Tax Raid Bites appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The French Handed the Migrants Over ? Then Asked for Their Life Jackets Back Thu Jul 10, 2025 17:56 | Will Jones
On the day Starmer and Macron announce their 'migrant deal', Nigel Farage is in the Channel to witness the French handing 78 migrants over to the British ? though not before asking for their life jackets back.
The post The French Handed the Migrants Over ? Then Asked for Their Life Jackets Back appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link No, 170 Londoners Didn?t ?Die of Climate Change? Last Week Thu Jul 10, 2025 15:38 | Will Jones
According to Imperial College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 170 Londoners died due to climate change in last week's heatwave. But it's just more modelling make believe, says Ross Clark.
The post No, 170 Londoners Didn’t “Die of Climate Change” Last Week appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Schools Ban Children From Playing Outside During Heatwaves Thu Jul 10, 2025 13:05 | Will Jones
Schools are banning children from?playing outside during heatwaves, keeping them inside for 'hot play' breaks when their playgrounds are deemed to be 'too hot to use safely'.
The post Schools Ban Children From Playing Outside During Heatwaves appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why are Taxpayers Being Charged ?1.2 Million for ?Inclusive? GCSE History? Thu Jul 10, 2025 11:00 | Charlotte Gill
Taxpayers have been charged ?1.2m for a project to make GCSE history 'inclusive'. Charlotte Gill takes a look at who's behind it and finds a bunch of uber-woke organisations pushing the usual gender and race gobbledegook.
The post Why are Taxpayers Being Charged ?1.2 Million for ‘Inclusive’ GCSE History? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Marx and Morality

category international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis author Sunday January 10, 2016 10:22author by Paddy Hackett Report this post to the editors

Is Marxist morality materialist?

Marx's morality is not materialist

Exploitation of labour power and alienation are the twin basis for the rejection of capitalism. The rejection of capitalism on this basis is a moral rejection of capitalism by Marxism. Exploitation and alienation are moral facts.

The moral rejection of capitalism is therefore based on intuitionism. This is because Marxism intuitively rejects both exploitation and alienation on moral grounds. In other words Marxism is morally opposed to exploitation and alienation because human intuition posits them as morally wrong.

Marxism, therefore, is a morality based on intuitionism. It does not, therefore, constitute a materialist morality.

The only materialist argument is one based on evolutionary psychology. Within this context it might be argued that the rejection of exploitation and alienation by Marxism is a product of human evolution. In other words hard wired into the brain is a rejection of exploitation and alienation. Given that such a rejection would have to be a product of a particular evolution that took place in the Stone Age it is hardly likely that such a cognitive adaptation took place. This is the only argument possible, in my view, for an acceptable materialist theory of Marxist morality. However, in my view, it hardly makes for a plausible theory.

author by Mike Novackpublication date Sat Jan 16, 2016 22:07author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There CANNOT be a (purely) materialist based morality.

Materialism can only generate "is" statements. Any proposed system of morality must inlcude at least one statement relating "is" to "ought"

However you were wrong to conclude that Marxist morality had to be based on "intuitionism". Most of the other "schools" are also possible bases. Nor would intuitionism be my first guess. Utilitarianism a more likely starting point. But like I said, could probably get to Marxist sort of conclusions from most of the others too.

Oddly enough, I don't think the "evolutionary biology" thinking can lead us to a PARTICULAR specific morality. Don't get me wrong, I believe that our evolution as social animals HAS given us some built in "short cut morality calculators". But the experiments that seem to back this up also indicate that they act in peculiar fashion relative to our rational thought processes (*). Only good for situations that can trigger the "instant moral decision calculator" >

* In Ethics we are SUPPOSED to reach the same conclusions for situations where we can't explain a rational basis for considering the cases to be different. But apparently, if one of these cases can trigger one of our "shortcut calculators" but the other can't, people sometimes do feel the answers should be different (though they can;t give a REASON why).

 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy