Marx and Morality

Is Marxist morality materialist?

Marx's morality is not materialist

Exploitation of labour power and alienation are the twin basis for the rejection of capitalism. The rejection of capitalism on this basis is a moral rejection of capitalism by Marxism. Exploitation and alienation are moral facts.

The moral rejection of capitalism is therefore based on intuitionism. This is because Marxism intuitively rejects both exploitation and alienation on moral grounds. In other words Marxism is morally opposed to exploitation and alienation because human intuition posits them as morally wrong.

Marxism, therefore, is a morality based on intuitionism. It does not, therefore, constitute a materialist morality.

The only materialist argument is one based on evolutionary psychology. Within this context it might be argued that the rejection of exploitation and alienation by Marxism is a product of human evolution. In other words hard wired into the brain is a rejection of exploitation and alienation. Given that such a rejection would have to be a product of a particular evolution that took place in the Stone Age it is hardly likely that such a cognitive adaptation took place. This is the only argument possible, in my view, for an acceptable materialist theory of Marxist morality. However, in my view, it hardly makes for a plausible theory.