Marxism and ethics : freedom, desire, and revolution / Paul Blackledge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blackledge, Paul, 1967-

Series:

SUNY series in radical social and political theory.

SUNY series in radical social and political theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Socialism--Moral and ethical aspects.

Socialism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (252 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : SUNY Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Marxism and Ethics is a comprehensive and highly readable introduction to the rich and complex history of Marxist ethical theory as it has evolved over the last century and a half. Paul Blackledge argues that Marx's ethics of freedom underpin his revolutionary critique of capitalism. Marx's conception of agency, he argues, is best understood through the lens of Hegel's synthesis of Kantian and Aristotelian ethical concepts. Marx's rejection of moralism is not, as suggested in crude materialist readings of his work, a dismissal of the free, purposive, subjective dimension of action. Freedom, for Marx, is both the essence and the goal of the socialist movement against alienation, and freedom's concrete modern form is the movement for real democracy against the capitalist separation of economics and politics. At the same time, Marxism and Ethics is also a distinctive contribution to, and critique of, contemporary political philosophy, one that fashions a powerful synthesis of the strongest elements of the Marxist tradition. Drawing on Alasdair MacIntyre's early contributions to British New Left debates on socialist humanism, Blackledge develops an alternative ethical theory for the Marxist tradition, one that avoids the inadequacies of approaches framed by Kant on the one hand and utilitarianism on the other.

Contents:

Introduction : Marxism's ethical deficit

Ethics as a problem for Marxism

Marx and the moral point of view

Ethics and politics in Second and Third International Marxism

Western Marxism's tragic vision

Alasdair MacIntyre's contribution to an ethical Marxism

Conclusion : from ethics to politics.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438439921

143843992X

9781461907275

1461907276

OCLC:

794781117