On Kymlicka's Criticism And Misunderstanding Of Marx's View Of Justic

The issue of justice has become one of the most important political philosophy problems in modern society and has received extensive attention from scholars both at home and abroad.The Canadian scholar Will Kymlicka wrote the book “Contemporary Political Philosophy”,and he conducted a dialogue with the contemporary schools of Western political philosophy.His understanding of Marxist thought of justice is also analyzed and criticized in the fifth chapter of the book.Through the analysis of the contents of the fifth chapter in Contemporary Political Philosophy,it is possible to expand the comparison between Marx's thought of justice and the egalitarian ideas of Western liberalism,so that it can not only clarifying the real essence of Marx's thought of justice,but providing thinking space for the theory of political philosophy in our country.Kymlicka is standing on the liberal egalitarianism's just position to analyze and criticize Marx's thoughts of justice.Liberal egalitarianism i s a form of liberalism.It further develops the theory of freedom while emphasizing equality,insisting on equality first and difference second.Liberal egalitarianism differs from utilitarianism based on the principle of utility maximization and liberty s upremacy that defends market freedom and advocates justice lies in power.Kymlicka inherited the neo-liberal idea of justice tending to equality that represented by Rawls and Dworkin,and believed that the justice of liberal egalitarianism transcend Marxist ideas of justice.Kymlicka's criticism of Marx's ideas of justice has following two points: First,he argues that “Marx's dispelling of justice,” from the aspects of “historical materialism has dispelled justice” and “Marx's dispelling of justice is unreasonable”.Second,he argued that Marx's theory of justice cannot demonstrate the injustice of private ownership of capitalism from the “exploitation,demand,alienation” theory.However,Kymlicka's criticism of Marx's justice thought clearly has its misunderstandings.First,Kymlicka ignored the compatibility of historical inevitability and justice thoughts.Secondly,he confused the three levels of Marx's justice.Third,Kymlicka has misunderstood Marx's labor values,dissimilation theory,and demand theories in some respects.There are three reasons that led to Kymlicka's misunderstandings.First,Kymlicka's liberal egalitarian justice position has limitations;Secondly,Kymlicka's grasp of Marx's thought of justice is subjective;Third,Kymlicka has class limitations as a bourgeois thinker;Fourth,there are problems with the methodology of liberalism.