Historical Theory and the Structure of Moral Argument in Marx

Bibliographic Data

ID6351501
AuthorsAlan Gilbert (University of Denver, corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume9
Issue2
Pages173-205
Publication date1981-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/009059178100900203
OpenAlexW2006773800
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited3

HN MARX'S MOST GENERAL formulations of historical materialism, he regarded the development of humanproductive powers as the driving force of social transformation over whole historical epochs. In the process of social transformation, class struggle, political activity, and moral argument play an important dialectical role, for instance in maintaining the repressiveness and legitimacy of an existing order or in forging the politics and moral justification of a new one. (As I have argued elsewhere, in developing specific historical explanations or political strategies, Marx provided a far wider leeway for political action and social and political alternatives than his general formulations appear to permit.)' But Marx's general argument can serve as a basis for criticizing the ethical conceptions of an eternal or natural justice which prevail in particular historical periods. Whether employed by defenders of an existing order or by radicals, such conceptions tend to coincide with specific modes of production, to stimulate their advance, and to wear thin as the relevant productive system declines. Marx's critique of prevailing moralities can, however, be mistakenly interpreted as denying any separable sphere of moral argument and reflection. In this view, which I will call the historicist critique of morality, Marx saw all moral judgments including his own as inextricably contextor origin-dependent.2 Not only do prevailing moralities shift

Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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