Do Social Sciences Threaten the Autonomy of Ethics? Reconstructing the Marxian Metaethical Response
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21700906 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thodoris Dimitrakos (0000-0001-6990-1980, University of Patras, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 383-415 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1382-4554 • E-ISSN: 1572-8609 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10892-024-09482-9 |
| OpenAlex | W4400685720 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 42 |
In the present paper, I attempt to provide a reconstructed Marxian response to the question of whether the social (and behavioral) sciences constitute a philosophical threat to the autonomy of ethics. I suggest that shedding light on some aspects of the Marxian work (especially the Theses on Feuerbach ), from the standpoint of the debate on naturalism in contemporary analytic philosophy, can offer valuable philosophical insights against the framework of scientific naturalism. This framework is responsible for presenting the social sciences as a philosophical threat to the autonomy of ethics. I argue that Marx detects and rejects three fundamental presuppositions of scientific naturalism: empiricism, ‘God’s point of view,’ and methodological individualism. I conclude that the Marxian view is a liberal naturalist perspective which allows both the scientific comprehension of the social world and the autonomy of ethics
Autonomy · Epistemology · Individualism · Methodological individualism · Naturalism · Political science · Presupposition · Social science · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
History and Class Consciousness
Le nouvel esprit scientifique
A Treatise of Human Nature
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Immanuel Kant Critique of Practical Reason
Autonomy and Its Burdens
Lectures on the History of Philosophy
Hegel
Mind and World
Naturalism and Normativity
The Sources of Normativity
Epistemology Naturalized
Marxism and Ethics
Karl Marx
The Causal Power of Social Structures
Hegel's Practical Philosophy
The Gramscian Moment
Why Things Matter to People
Marxism, Morality, and Social Justice
The Possibility of Naturalism
Ruling Illusions
Studies in the Logic of Explanation
Thinking about Mechanisms
Hume on "Is" and "Ought
The Naturalists Return
The View From Nowhere
Historical Materialism in Ethics
Marxism, ‘Ideology,’ and Moral Objectivism 1
Self-Constitution
Normativity and Naturalism in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Philosophy of Social Science
A Realist Theory of Science
IsVerstehenScientific Understanding
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |