Constructing a Socialist Meta-Ethics

Constructing a Socialist Meta-Ethics: In Marxism-Leninism, the materialist concept of history and existence renders an objective claim of morality not only impossible, but quite useless. By universal, I am referring a meta-ethical concept of the good (and evil) that exists independent of agents somewhere in the metaphysical realm that is binding in some way or another. This, however doesn't mean that Marxism-Leninism must fall into the abyss of relativism, rather, it means a different form of binding meta-ethical concepts of good and evil must be constructed.

It would be absurd to try and say that Marxist-Leninists reject morality in general; rather, they posit a criticism of bourgeois morality for what it really is: the codification and generalization of justifications for things as they are. Often times, this bourgeois morality is inextricably linked to liberal politics and economics. The proletariat too has its own concept of meta-ethical principles which shape its interpretation of morality. My purpose here is to make a possible outline for a prospective meta-ethics of socialism (of the Marxist-Leninist variety).

If we reject meta-ethical concepts of the good as unknowable, unrealistic, and only that which is posited by the dominant class in any given society - where may we look for the base of constructing such a meta-ethical system? We have to look at the foundation of society. If capitalism serves as the economic, political, and social foundation for which social normative claims are made for the bourgeoisie, then for the proletariat the same must be applied. Note, this is relative in that the foundational base of economics changes and is not objective - however it may be applied objectively since the materialist concept of history and social progress are more or less objective.

For the capitalist class, what is normatively good is that which protects the status quo (the base), whose sole interest is profit and sustaining a political and social atmosphere conducive to this end. The same methodology could be equally applied to the socialist - with substantially different results.

If bourgeois meta-ethics have in their foundation a preconceived notion of what serves capitalism (think how it is morally permissible to claim something that you 'own' as definitively yours and the right to exclude others from its use or profit) then we must look at socialist meta-ethics as serving the same purpose. So what would a socialist meta-ethical concept of the good look like?

It should be obviously simple at this point: that which is good is conducive to the establishment and achievement of communism. Note: by communism I'm referring to the advanced stage of socialism as described by Marx that inevitably follows socialism (dictatorship of the proletariat). This is not to say that the good = communism, as neither Marx nor anybody who applies Marx's methods would (or could) make such a claim, as it is void of moral/ethical analysis. Rather, for the socialist he judges his behavior as ethically "good" versus ethically "bad/evil" when he acts in ways which are deleterious or detrimental to the establishment of communism. The process for judging whether or not actions are either good or bad will be a strictly empirical. For instance, we can verify through empirical evidence those actions taken by socialists which could obviously distract from the route to communism; and conversely, we can use this empirical evidence to generate educated potentials and possible outcomes for other behaviors. This meta-ethical description is pragmatic and not at odds with materialism.

This meta-ethical system also does not try to posit moral claims regarding capitalism, socialism, or any other economic system as either "good," or "bad." Indeed, Marx never calls capitalism unjust of bad, nor does he state that socialism is good or better. Both these economic systems trace their origins towards a dialectical process that makes them possible through the conflict between opposing collective interests throughout the entire course of human history. Secondly, our definition of the good would not make much sense when applied to systems, societies, or political institutions with its strictly pragmatic and empirical basis for the "good."

Applying this meta-ethics one can create a normative ethical system for how socialists ought to act in regards to their interest in communism to begin with. This normative system would be inherently consequentialist, (like Utilitarianism) and teleological - end based ethics. Thus, normative claims for the behavior of socialists, workers, and eventually all citizenry within a socialist state would judge actions and behaviors according to their relationship to the establishment of communism (without communism serving as the good in itself, but rather as the objective of political, economic, and social institutions as they exist in that time period).

I do think this is a meta-ethical (and subsequent normative) system that Marx could agree upon and does not attempt to dive into the metaphysics of morality for which it can achieve nothing. Rather, we have produced a meta-ethical concept of the good which can be practically applied with positive results. Other formulations could potentially be systematized and implemented according to other factors, such as material conditions as they exist (and in fact, this would be necessary). Thus, we could possibly conclude a meta-ethical problem for socialism which denies the universal moral claim altogether, but constructs for itself a principle of the "good" which is both applicable and capable of generating results. How this may be applied and what these results are is entirely contingent upon the factors as they develop in the conditions for which such a system may be applied.