Continuing chapter 4, on Engels: West first offers a few quotes from _Anti-Duhring_ documenting Engels' belief that there is historical progress in morality. I will only quote a fraction of one of these quotes, which I think is directly relevant to West's subsequent assertions
quote from Engels: -------------------- Which then is the true one? [morality] None of them, in the sense of having absolute validity; but certainly the morality which contains the maximum of durable elements is the one, which, in the present, represents the overthrow of the present, represents the future: that is, the proletarian. -------------------- endquote (in West, p. 105) I am not going to bring in the rest of this quote, or any of the others, for as I see it, only the reference to the "maximum of durable elements" justifies what West is about to say: quote: -------------------- When Engels talks about progress in morality he is not only referring to progress in the way in which we account for the moral beliefs people hold, but more importantly, progress in the particular moral beliefs people have come to hold over time. Certain moral beliefs have been appropriate for particular historical epochs, but the shifts in the systems of morality over time represent progress in morality. In short, certain historical shifts in moral beliefs constitute shifts to _better_, or more desirable, moral beliefs. And what is the standard against which such progress is measured? This standard, on my interpretation of his view, is best understood as the ever-broadening intersubjective agreement and convergence among people that a classless society is desirable. Progress in morality is the enlarging of the pool of people who agree that class equality is preferable. Such progress in morality takes the form of a highly _critical_ disposition toward the present society and its dominant moral beliefs. For Engels, Marx's theory of history explains why there has been limited agreement in morality and predicts what particular social conditions are necessary for this agreement to broaden. The class character of human societies restricts human agreement in morality and prohibits convergence among people on the desirability of a classless society. Engels identifies a desirable morality with the proletarian future revolution because, following Marx's social theory, broad agreement on the desirability of a classless society is possible only after successful transfer of power from the capitalist class to the proletariat. And this transfer of power can be achieved only by revolution. In this way, the substance of proletarian morality at the present time is critical revolutionary activity, bringing about the conditions requisite for broad agreement on class equality. (106) --------------------------- endquote I can't vouch for Anti-Duhring as a whole, but I don't see this argument following from any of West's quoted passages, including the fragment on 'durability' I singled out. "Certain moral beliefs have been appropriate for particular historical epochs" Engels doesn't use this tendentious phraseology in the passages quoted. If he did, it would be relevant to the question of Hegel's rational/actual addressed by Engels in LUDWIG FEUERBACH. Engels supplies no standard for moral progress; he simply asserts it. But West chooses to interpret it as "ever-broadening intersubjective agreement". He says this because previous moralities were products of class antagonisms according to Engels, and the morality of the future will be free of them, which implies broad or even universal intersubjective agreement. But Engels doesn't make this argument at all. Hence West's interpretation is arbitrary, and the rest of his arbitrary interpretation follows. Unfuckingbelievable! Next, West is concerned whether Engels' argument is based on vicious circular reasoning. (107) Ther are two ways out, according to West (108-9): (1) to adopt a radical historicist view, or (2) to pursue "a philosophic quest for objectivity". (109) West argues that Engels wavers between the two, but opts for the latter. Engels' view, in West's view, "resembles a historicized Rawlsian Original Position within the historical process." (109) 'This "Original Position" consists of not-yet-arrived-at historical circumstances of class equality which serves as ideal choice-conditions for actual broad moral agreement." (109-110) It is bad enough to waste one's time reading Rawls; it's even worse to drag this crap into a discussion of Engels. If this doesn't show how worthless the American academic philosophical establishment is, what does? There is a whole argument that follows (p. 110), but why should be care, since it is based on nothing? The conclusion is that Engels makes a leap of faith on the "ultimate harmony of human existence and human history." This is a metaphysical view unsubstantiated on empirical grounds. (110-11) Now the problem with all this is that West's interpretation is totally arbitrary. In the passages quoted, Engels argues nothing at all for progress in morality, he simply asserts it without justification. If there is a problem, it is that there is no argument at all. But remember, these are just a few passages. If Anti-Duhring bears out this analysis, there is nothing West adduces to support it. Again, I would consult LUDWIG FEUERBACH where I see this problem actually occurring. West terms Engels' position moderate historicism. This ethical position is based on foundationalist epistemology and philosophy of science. Huh? I'm guessing because this position purports to justify itself based on historical facts and hence the facts of social evolution. But proper evidence is not adduced to show how Engels connects is and ought, and how this differs from Marx's approach. By contrast, radical historicism "discards the obsession with the notion of philosophic foundations and hence the quest for objectivity." (111) But West has not yet documented his claim regarding Engels. Marx discards morality; Engels finds progress in morality by merely asserting it. An argument based on this difference is a house of cards. But apparently an argument is forthcoming: Engels clings to the distinction between hard and soft sciences. First, according to Engels, there are the hardest of the sciences, subject to mathematical treatment, which yield exact results. Then there is biology. Finally, there are the historical sciences. Engels is out to combat Duhring's hard objectivism and foundationalist philosophy of science and ethics. (112) There follows a quote from Engels on variable magnitudes and the recession of final truths. (113) Engels thinks this sounds like Kuhn. What an idiot! SO, according to West, a radical historicist would interrogate the social practices of mathematicians and scientists, rather than appealing to some "eternal truths" (which I presume are the terminological equivalent to objective knowledge). West sees Engels misguided in assewrting the relativity of historical knowledge in distinction from the greater objectivity "immutability" of the truths of the hard sciences. (113) And then West attacks "objectivity" as "philosophic" and hence by implication apioristic and foundationalist (my words, not West's). (114) West doesn't like Engels' notion of 'immutable' truths. But this is all dishonest. For what is involved in 'immutability' here is not the assertion of absolute certainty (an epistemic claim) but in the immutability of scientific laws (of physics, for example). But this immutability was assumed of _physical laws_ if not of physical objects (i.e. of astronomy) even by cosmology until recently. While this may be a scientific and even metascientific (ontological) claim, it should not be considered a dogmatic, unresolvable claim. Rather, it is consistent with Engels' general emphasis on variability, even though he did not suspect that even the laws of physics might be variable (i.e. emerged as stable laws shortly after the Big Bang). West is simply incompetently, arbitrarily importing subjectivist garbage from Kuhn, Rorty, and the panoply of postpositivist American philosophical wastrels. What an asshole! Then West charges ahead to Engels' notion of dialectics, certainly a vulnerable area. The first quote, oddly, does not support West's concerns, for it is the quote in which Engels says that only formal logic and dialectics survives the obliteration of philosophy by positive science in a materialist perspective. But what implied here is that formal logic and dialectics preserve immutable truths. This doesn't sound good for Engels, but the quote adduced is the one where Engels asserts the dialectical laws of motion (without enumerating them). Now this is a dangerous assertion to be sure, but West does not trouble himself to locate Engels' conflation of empirical and logical laws. In fact, he begins to defend Engels with Engels' confession that dialectics provides no guarantees, but what bothers West is "the old quest for objectivity and the search for foundations" as Engels' "regulative ideal." (114-5) But there is no search for foundations in Engels, as Engels makes clear. There is, however, the quest for objectivity, and West hates this because he is a subjectivist. Engels' relation of science and ethics requires a teleological view of history. Furthermore: "Engels' conception of science leads him to think that the development of history is guided by dialectical laws". A society without class distinctions is morally desirable because in it choices could be made based on "essential preferences". This necessary historical process, ascertained by scientific investigation revealing dialectical laws, culminates in genuine history. The attempted linkage of ethics, science, morality, history, dialectics and objectivity fails. (115-6) Now such a linkage probably does fail. However, West does such a poor job of establishing Engels' conception of the linkage, we don't know from the citations where the failure is. Engels may well fail, if in fact his view of history is teleological and grounds morals in a teleological metaphysics. But in the passages cited, Engels does not ground his assertions regarding the progress of morality in any way, nor does he say much about teleology and the dialectical laws of history. Filling in the blanks, we may well find both problems with Engels' view of historical lawfulness and its relation to the notion of moral progress, and we can certainly anticipate lack of clarity with respect to his notion of dialectics. On this basis, we could find that his views differ from Marx's. But there's much less to do on in claiming that Engels' view of morality really differs from Marx's. In a non-"philosophical" sense of the term, it is likely that Marx believed in moral progress, at least potentially if not in actuality. And it is not clear from the citations alone that Engels asserted anything about moral progress in any other than an informal conception. In the final analysis, West's chapter on Engels is worthless, unlike his analysis of Marx. And why is this? Because ultimately West is a subjectivist who hates sciences and the quest for objectivity, which he conflates with foundationalism and metaphysics. He's an asshole. (to be continued) _______________________________________________ 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
