[Xmca-l] Re: If economics is immune from ethics, why should exploitation be a topic of discussion in economics?

[Andy Blunden]

Here's Lenin's Ethics:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/oct/02.htm

Andy

------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Blunden
http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
On 20/07/2018 12:56 AM, Ulvi İçil wrote:
> Andy, what about Lenin in this issue?
>
> Ulvi
>
> 18 Tem 2018 Çar 08:19 tarihinde Andy Blunden
> <andyb@marxists.org <mailto:andyb@marxists.org>> şunu yazdı:
>
>     Harshad,
>
>     According to Marx, "exploitation," as he uses the
>     concept in /Capital/, is not an ethical concept at
>     all; it simply means making a gain by utilising an
>     affordance, as in "exploiting natural resources." Many
>     "Marxist economists" today adhere to this view.
>     However, I am one of those that hold a different view.
>     And the legacy of Stalinism is evidence of some
>     deficit in the legacy of Marx's writing - it was so
>     easy for Stalin to dismiss ethics as just so much
>     nonsense and claim the mantel of Marxism!
>
>     Much as I admire Marx, he was wrong on Ethics. He was
>     a creature of his times in this respect, or rather in
>     endeavouring to /not/ be a creature of his times, he
>     made an opposite error. He held all ethics in contempt
>     as if religion had a monopoly on this topic, and it
>     were nothing more than some kind of confidence trick
>     to fool the masses. (Many today share this view.) In
>     fact, contrary to his own self-consciousness,
>     /Capital/ is a seminal work of ethics.
>
>     The problem stems from Hegel and from Marx's efforts
>     to make a positive critique of Hegel. As fine a work
>     of Ethics as Hegel's /Philosophy of Right/ is, it had
>     certain problems which Marx had to overcome. These
>     included Hegel's insistence that the state alone could
>     determine right and wrong (the state could of course
>     make errors, but in the long run there is no
>     extramundane source of Right beyond the state). This
>     was something impossible for Marx to accept. And yet
>     Hegel's idea of Ethics as something objective,
>     contained in the evolving forms of life (rather than
>     Pure Reason inherent in every individual as Kant held,
>     or from God via His agents on Earth, the priesthood),
>     Marx wished to embrace and continue.
>
>     So the situation is very complex. The foremost work on
>     Ethics was authored by a person who did not believe
>     they wrote about Ethics at all.
>
>     Here is a page with lots of resources on this
>     question:
>     https://www.marxists.org/subject/ethics/index.htm
>
>     Andy
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     Andy Blunden
>     http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
>     On 18/07/2018 2:54 PM, Harshad Dave wrote:
>>
>>
>>       Why do we discuss on exploitation?
>>
>>     As per Marx's views, ethics has no influence on
>>     economic processes. Does exploitation have no link
>>     with ethical feelings? The sense of exploitation is
>>     absolutely linked with our ethical feelings. If
>>     economics is immune from influence of ethics and
>>     sense of /*exploitation*/ is founded on our ethical
>>     evaluation, then discussion
>>     on /*exploitation*/ should not find place in the
>>     topics of economics/political economics.
>>     Harshad Dave
>>     hhdave15@gmail.com <mailto:hhdave15@gmail.com>
>>
>>
>>
>>     Harshad Dave
>>     ​hhdave15@gmail.com <mailto:hhdave15@gmail.com>​
>>
>

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