O significado de ética em Marx

Abstract

The present work intends to present the meaning of ethics that appears veiled in the writings of Karl Marx from the emphasis given by this author to the capitalist mode of production with all its elementary characteristics, besides the conception of man as a social being endowed with objectifications. This perspective makes possible the understanding of the values that govern the life of individuals in society and the mechanisms responsible for their establishment. Indeed, there is no elaborate ethics in Marxian theory, since this category did not have the capacity to overcome the structural contradictions of capitalist society. But the absence of a treatise on ethics in Marx does not imply the absence of ethics, since all his work, that is, the texts of youth and maturity, have an ethical significance on which lies the purpose of this research - such meaning. Thus, the basic thesis of this study concentrates on the analysis of the ethics derived from the social existence itself with all its material conditioning, being inserted in a real context and in a historical-social structure. Starting from this assumption, an approach of the meaning of ethics in the theory of Marx is contemplated following two opposite planes: A critic and another derived from the class struggle. That is, the first plane is based on morality from its social and class determination, having the ideological device as an instrument capable of hiding the interests of the ruling class in producing a moral forged by the false consciousness of reality. The second plan is derived from the class struggle existing in capitalist society, which is aligned with the interests of the oppressed majority and exploited by the system, so this scope of ethics puts into perspective such values as solidarity, collectivism, freedom, respect and the courage to fight to subvert the dominant order.