Exploring Kantian Ethics, Marx’s Materialism, and Economic Thought
Taxation and Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Taxation.
Kant’s ethics are categorical, meaning that moral actions are ends in themselves, not means to an end. Otherwise, they would be hypothetical imperatives. The categorical imperative mandates actions as good in themselves, regardless of consequences. Actions executed by the categorical imperative are good “in themselves” and stem from goodwill.
To act out of duty is to follow the categorical imperative. Kant formulates this imperative in various ways, including:
* ‘Act so that your action may become a universal standard.’ This imperative requires moral principles to be universal. An action’s goodness is determined by its potential to be a universal rule of conduct, independent of material or concrete content. The goodness depends on how the action is performed. A good deed is one that can be universalized.
* ‘Always treat humanity, both in yourself and in others, as an end in itself and never as a means.’ This formulation emphasizes human dignity, the fundamental quality of any person as an end in itself, not to be used as a means. For Kant, an action is moral if it respects the dignity of others. Humans are not subject to external universal laws; the categorical imperative arises within them.
The Postulates of Practical Reason (Kant)
Kant concluded that for moral life to be possible, we must postulate freedom, immortality of the soul, and God, similar to his analysis of theoretical reason.
The Hegelian Left (Marx)
Hegel and the Young Hegelians
Hegel used dialectics to understand reality, highlighting contradictions in humans, history, and nature. His thought led to two opposing movements: the Hegelian Left (Young Hegelians) and the Hegelian Right. The Right justified religion and power, while the Left believed reality didn’t meet reason’s demands and needed transformation. The Young Hegelians used Hegel’s dialectic to expose societal contradictions and critique religion’s legitimacy for power. Rejected by academia, dominated by the Hegelian Right, one of their key thinkers was Feuerbach.
Feuerbach’s Materialism
Feuerbach, a model of the Hegelian Left, published The Essence of Christianity. He reversed Hegel’s idealism, advocating for a materialist philosophy where spirit arises from the material world. Feuerbach introduced the concept of religious alienation: God is a human creation, projecting idealized qualities onto a higher being. He famously stated, “God created man, but it is man who created God.” This concept of alienation is Feuerbach’s significant contribution.
Utopian Socialism (Marx)
Mid-19th-century utopian socialists emphasized social reforms to end worker exploitation and injustice, some even implementing their proposals. Key figures included Robert Owen in England, and Saint-Simon and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in France. Marx called them utopian due to their idealistic proposals, lacking a scientific basis.
Economic Liberalism (Marx)
Smith and Ricardo
Smith and Ricardo are the fathers of economic liberalism, their theories justifying capitalism. Smith argued that labor determines commodity value, advocating for free competition to boost production. Ricardo developed Smith’s theories, introducing concepts like minimum wage and natural wage, based on the natural law of supply and demand. Rousseau’s Enlightenment ideas on the natural equality of all men also influenced this thinking.
Dialectical Materialism (Marx)
Marxism holds a materialist and dialectical view of reality, a dynamic field changing according to Hegelian-inspired laws:
* The law of unity and opposition of opposites: Everything is a unity of opposites, and transformations result from their clashes.
* The law of quantum leap: Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes; accumulation results in new qualities.
* The law of negation of negation: Contradictions are resolved in a new unity, exemplified by a seed becoming a plant, blooming, dying, and producing another seed, restarting the process.
Dialectical materialism opposes Hegelian idealism and mechanical materialism, which views the world as inert matter. Reality must be studied in dialectical terms.
Historical Materialism (Marx)
Historical materialism is the Marxist explanation of history, defending:
* A dialectical interpretation of history.
* A materialist conception of history, where the mode of production (relations and forces of production) determines society’s beliefs, values, and culture, not the other way around, as Hegel proposed.
Key concepts include:
* Relations of production: Relationships established between humans to transform nature, including property relations.
* Forces of production: Elements in the production process: labor, means of production (machinery, land), and technology.
* Mode of production: The combination of production relations and forces at a particular historical moment. This forms the infrastructure (economy) of society.
* The infrastructure determines the superstructure: the political, moral, legal, and philosophical systems. The superstructure includes organizations and institutions like the state, political parties, and educational systems. Infrastructure and superstructure form a societal structure (e.g., feudalism or capitalism).