As Cornel West's analysis of Marx's take on morality suggests, Marx
applied the standards of "bourgeois right" (trading at price = value) to
show that capitalist violates _its own standards_. Marx clearly had his
own moral standards, but he never elaborated on them (he was never an
ethicist): living in an era (not that different from our own) when
people throw around moral slogans and then routinely turn around to
violate them, he focused instead on the contrast between moral theory
and practice. West argues that Marx gave up on the project of finding
the fundamental basis for all morality. [partly because he saw efforts such
as Kant's as so sterile.]
I have no comments on the substance of this discussion. Cornel West? It is true that he is an intelletcual giant by any standard. However, as a follower of his writing - of which he decidated Chapter 4 of his first book almost two decades ago to a blistering criticism of me, which I actually love to disagree with, he might not be the man for ascertain a materialist conception of morality and its conversion into ethics under the impact of the division of labor.
Mr. West viewpoint is crystallized through the lens of Jesus the Christ and redemption - which is an inseparable part of my heritage never denied, and this in my opinion prevents him from grasping the transition of morality into ethic and its future negation. This does not in any way diminish this theoretical contributions - which in my opinion are immense. In other word my own particular conception of morality and ethics is no different from the relationship of value to price; the polarization of the reflection or rather manifestation of value as price and their movement in antagonism based on class society.
Pardon my ramblings but life circumstances have tended to prevent me from engaging Marx conception of alienation, man as self, its polarizations and processes, all of which are lements of the theory of value - in as much as value is collective human activity, measurable on the basis of the socially necessary labor in the prodution of commodities.
Is there an emial list that Mr. West writes on. We haven't spent any time together since trhe 1980s and it was a blast. If so please forward.
Cornel West !!! - you guys going to make me go to Church - regularly.
JJJeeeeeeesszzzzzus.
Melvin P.
