In this article, Cornforth directly addresses an issue that is discussed often among some of the Marxists on this and related lists: What is Marx's attitude toward "morality" and "ethics" ? Cornforth dispels the mystery and notion that Marx and Marxism are silent on morality.
"The scientific ideas of communism about social development and human personality, and likewise its ideas about how to conduct the politics of class struggle, are not derived from moral concepts or value judgments; they are derived from investigation of human relations and experience of class struggle. On the other hand, moral concepts and value judgments are derived from the scientific and political ideas of communism. Thus communism is not founded on principles of morality but, on the other hand, it enunciates foundations for value judgments. Communism does not by a moral argument deduce an ideal of human association and standards of conduct but, on the other hand, by examining the actual conditions and possibilities of human association and the causes and effects of different kinds of conduct it finds the reasons for judging one form of association more desirable than another, and one mode of conduct better than another. At the same time, the value judgments which the scientific ideas of communism lead to are not in contradiction to those which have been previously evolved during the progressive development of mankind. Communism does not contradict the traditional conceptions of human values exemplified in the condemnation of greed, cruelty and oppression, the assertion of the rights of individuals, the inviolability of human personality and the brotherhood of men; on the contrary, it embraces them, justifies them by sufficient reasons and shows the way to convert them from ideals into realities." skip "...The guiding principle of the scientific materialist communist humanist method of arriving at value judgments is that what is worth while, what is good, what is right, what ought to be aimed at and done in human relations and human behaviour is what promotes the human mode of existence—or, as Marx put it in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, "realises the human essence". It is what promotes that mode of existence in which people co‑operate to obtain what they require, and in which the development of the personality of each is aided by and aids that of others." Ralph Dumain __ New on my web site: Science and Evaluation by Maurice Cornforth http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/cornforth2.html SOURCE: Cornforth, Maurice. Communism and Human Values (New York: International Publishers, 1972), Chapter 8, pp. 41-47. MC, 1971: "This essay on Communism and Human Values reproduces, with some slight changes, three chapters from my Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy, first published in 1965. References originally made to views of "linguistic" philosophers have been deleted, and, for the sake of rounding this off as an independent essay, some small additions have been made and some re-arrangement of the original material." This chapter is relatively trivial, but since it represents Cornforth's approach to philosophy and was adapted from his book on linguistic philosophy, I've added it to the archive. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
