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Single Idea 23874

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / j. Ethics by convention ]

Full Idea

Marx saw that social groups manufacture moralities for their own use, so their activity is placed outside the reach of evil. Thus the first articles of soldiers and businessmen is to deny that it is possible to do evil while waging war or doing business.

Gist of Idea

Armies and businesses create moralities in which their activity can do no wrong

Source

report of Karl Marx (works [1860]) by Simone Weil - Fragments: London 1943 p.146

Book Ref

Weil,Simone: 'Oppression and Liberty' [Routledge 1955], p.146

A Reaction

This is especially true of the modern reverence for 'market forces'. It is a key debate in the ethics of warfare - compare Walzer and McMahon. A striking thought, obviously containing a lot of truth.

Related Idea

Idea 23599 You don't become a legitimate target, just because you violently resist an unjust attack [McMahan]

The 31 ideas from Karl Marx

21995 Must production determine superstructure, or could it be the other way round? [Singer on Marx]
20577 Even decently paid workers still have their produce bought with money stolen from them [Marx]
21996 Freedom only comes when labour is no longer necessary [Marx]
22000 From each according to his ability, to each according to his need [Marx]
22969 People who only have their labour power are the slaves of those permitting them to work [Marx]
22972 Bourgeois 'freedom of conscience' just tolerates all sorts of religious intolerance [Marx]
22971 In moving from capitalism to communism a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is needed [Marx]
22970 Freedom is making the state subordinate to its society [Marx]
22001 The real will of the cooperative will replace the 'will of the people' [Marx]
21991 The middle class gain freedom through property, but workers can only free all of humanity [Marx, by Singer]
7128 Religion is the opium of the people, and real happiness requires its abolition [Marx]
21990 Theory is as much a part of a revolution as material force is [Marx]
20519 Marxists say liberal rights are confrontational, and liberal equality is a sham [Marx, by Wolff,J]
21989 Man is dominated by money, which is the essence of his alienation [Marx]
21994 The handmill gives feudalism, the steam mill capitalism [Marx]
22598 The authentic self exists at the level of class, rather than the individual [Marx, by Dunt]
5297 Whether human thinking can be 'true' must be decided in practice, not theory [Marx]
5298 The human essence is not found in individuals but in social relations [Marx]
5299 Religious feeling is social in origin [Marx]
5300 Philosophers have interpreted the world, but the point is to change it [Marx]
23874 Armies and businesses create moralities in which their activity can do no wrong [Marx, by Weil]
20576 Early Marx anticipates communitarian objections to liberalism [Marx, by Oksala]
18662 Liberal freedom is the right to be separate, and ignores the union of man with man [Marx]
23862 By saying the material dialectic of history aspires to the best, Marx agreed with capitalism [Weil on Marx]
21999 False consciousness results from concealment by the superstructure [Marx, by Singer]
23875 Marx says force is everything, and that the weak will become strong, while remaining the weak [Weil on Marx]
20958 Capitalism changes the world, by socialising the idea of a commodity [Marx, by Bowie]
23876 The essence of capitalism is the subordination of people to things [Marx, by Weil]
20960 Marx thought capitalism was partly liberating, and could make labour and ownership more humane [Marx, by Bowie]
18653 Marx rejected equal rights because they never actually treat people as equals [Marx, by Kymlicka]
23372 Liberals want the right to be separate, rather than for people to be united [Marx]