A Study Of Kay Nielsen’s Marxist Morality

The relationship between Marxism and morality is a hot topic in the study of contemporary moral theory.Western Marxists have launched a heated debate on this issue,therefore,it forms two opposing camps of Marxist moral theory and non-moral(anti morality)theory,Kay Nielsen is an important representative of Marxist moral theory.Nielsen believes that we must study Marxist moral issues based on historical materialism,so as to achieve the internal unity of historical materialism,ideology and morality.From this point of view,he criticized "economic determinism" and regarded historical materialism as a scientific theory on social changes of the times.He demanded that Marxist morality be studied from the perspective of moral sociology,that is,from the social role and function of morality.By redefining historical materialism,Nielsen established the basic position of contextualism,believing that morality is determined to a considerable extent by the objective context,therefore,contextualism is different from meta-ethical relativism and ethical relativism.The specific historical context and objective environment determine the objectivity and rationality of morality,with the development of production,morality will continue to progress.With the re-understanding of historical materialism,Nielsen further analyzed "ideology" and "ideological",the former reveals the social role of morality,the latter shows the distortion of morality to world outlook.In explaining Marxist morality,Nielsen always emphasizes the importance of context for moral research from the perspective of historical materialism,tries to solve the problem of moral relativism,and thus explains the opposite nature of moral function.It is of positive significance to correctly understand Marxist moral outlook.However,Nielsen’s understanding of historical materialism has some problems.Emphasizing the role of context can not really solve the problem of moral relativism,nor can it clarify the unity of fact and value;When he explained the truth of morality by distinguishing "ideology" from "ideological",he did not pay attention to the problem of the distinction itself,because ideology itself is true or false.Of course,this negative effect reminds us that the study of Marxist morality must accurately understand Marxism as a whole.