Kai Nielsen’s Study Of Marxist Morality

Whether or not Marxism has a moral theory is a controversial topic,especially since the 1960 s and 1970 s,western analytical Marxists have raised a hot wave of discussion on this issue.From this,the analysis of Marxism in part for moralism and non-moralism two.In theory,Nielsen is more inclined to the side of moralism,and his defense of Marxist moral view has important research value.Historical materialism is the starting point of Nielsen’s theory.By re-understanding the relationship between morality and ideology,Nielsen reveals the significance of Marxist moral expression and moral criticism from the perspective of moral sociology.In Nielsen’s opinion,the moral criticism of Marxism includes the criticism of ideology.Because ideology may be distorted and false,morality,as a form of ideology,is also the object of criticism.As a matter of fact,Marxism does not negate morality comprehensively.In addition to false morality,Marxist thoughts contain rich normative morality.However,the fact that there is normative morality in Marxism does not indicate that moral relativism is a correct position held by Marxism.Therefore,in the process of criticizing moral relativism,Nielsen regards contextualism as a reasonable interpretation of Marxist moral view.In his opinion,morality in historical materialism changes with the change of context,and the objectivity of historical materialism proves the objectivity and rationality of morality in context.In addition,Nielsen also believes that although the pursuit of the interests of the proletariat is the goal of the Marxist revolution,the pursuit of the interests of the class does not mean the abandonment of morality,because the pursuit of the interests of the proletariat and the pursuit of morality are simultaneous.Nielsen’s Marxist moral view,on the one hand,not only enriches and develops Marxist ethics,on the other hand,it also provides reference and inspiration for China’s moral research and moral construction.However,although Nielsen’s theory does reflect its advantages,we can not ignore its limitations,that is,objective contextualism can not only not overcome the problem of moral relativism,but also can not achieve the unity of fact and value.