Visions of Social Justice in Marx: An Assessment of Recent Debates in Normative Philosophy
Considers three current interpretations of Karl Marx's theory of social justice, labeled young Hegelian cryptonormativism; scientific antinormativism; & life-liberal cryptonormativism, respectively. In the first interpretation, Marx explicitly repudiates distributive notions of justice, yet appears to retain a belief in some notion of justice. This paradox is explained as a consequence of Marx's faith in a young Hegelian metaphysical philosophy in which justice is defined as the recovery of an unalienated species-being. In the second interpretation, it is argued that Marx rejects notions of distributive justice, not because he is a young Hegelian metaphysic, but because of his scientific analysis of capitalist exploitation. The third interpretation sees in Marx's paradoxical views on justice an ethical vision representative of a liberal-humanist quest for substantive freedom & individual self-realization. It is concluded that, while there is much to recommend in these three interpretations, several issues remain unresolved in their debates: the value of Marx's Hegel, the usefulness of Marx's theory of human nature; & Marx's conception of the relation between labor & freedom. 110 References. D. Ryfe