Dennis Badeen, Ph.D candidate in Social and Political Thought York 
University Toronto Canada.


Is There a Marxist Ethics?

Most contemporary (neo)-liberal economic and political theories assert
that capitalism is the only viable system for which there is no
alternative.  To the extent that justification of this statement is
offered either implicit but usually explicit arguments stemming from a
conception of human nature, i.e., humans are self-interested, greedy,
lazy, etc.  are made to support it.  These conceptions found both
political and economic theory and practice while any moral or
normative implication is disavowed.  It would seem that a new
conception of "human nature" ought to be articulated to combat these
claims.  Althusser's claim that Marxism is anti-humanism does not seem
to help us as Althusser's critique of humanism undercuts recourse to
any alternative ethical system or conception of "human nature" thus
reproducing the fact/value dichotomy of bourgeois economics.  I will
argue that Althusser's notion of "theoretical practice" allows for a
certain undogmatic form of humanism and ethics which offers an
alternative to bourgeois forms without having to anchor this ethic to
a notion of "human nature."