MARX AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

ETHICS AND NATURAL LAW IN THE CRITIQUE
OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction:     The Ethical Archaeology of Justice in Marx
   

PART I:      DIALECTIC BETWEEN THE ANCIENTS AND THE MODERNS:
NATURAL LAW AND NATURAL RIGHTS

Chapter 1:    Natural Law and Nature Rights in Locke:
Indifference and Incoherence of Liberalism

Thomas Hobbes and the State of Nature and War
Richard Hooker and the Laws of Nature and Ecclesiastical Polity
Locke on Natural Rights and Natural Law
Ethics and Structure in Natural Law
Natural Law Limits to Natural Rights in the Original State of Nature
Eclipse of Natural Law and Social Justice in the Second State of Nature
Irrelevance of Natural Law, Incoherence of Liberalism, and the Return to Hobbes

  Chapter 2:     Justice Beyond Liberalism:
Natural Law and Ethical Community in Hegel

Early Theological Writings and Dreams of Classical Antiquity in Hegel
Hegel’s Natural Law and Critique of Liberalism and Natural Rights
Social Ethics and Integration of Natural Law and Natural Ethics
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Law, and the State as Objective Spirit
Formation of the Ethical Life in the State
Marx’s Critique of Hegel and the Revival of Classical Democracy
in Spinoza and Rousseau

PART II:      ETHICS, VIRTUE, AND NATURAL LAW IN MARX

  Chapter 3:     Civil Rights and Legal Justice:
Integrating Natural Rights and Natural Law

Religious Prejudice, Judaism, and Civil Rights
Natural Rights as Ideology and Alienation
Transition of Politics from Pure Ideology to Human Rights and Emancipation
Critique of Liberal Democracy and Contradictions between Economic and
Political Rights
Marx’s Theory of Emancipation and Human Rights
Natural Rights of Free Press and Universal Suffrage

Chapter 4:    Workplace Justice:
Ethics, Virtue, and Human Freedom

Alienation and the Virtue of Work and Self-Determination
Work as Productive Life and Creative Beauty
Ethics, Human Needs, and Natural Law
Virtue and Late Medieval Thomistic Natural Law

Chapter 5:    Ecological Justice:
Historical Materialism and the Dialectic of Nature and Society

Alienation of Production, Labor, and Nature
Dialectic of Nature and the Alienation of Consciousness
Natural Science as the Objectification and Social Praxis of Species Being
Science as Objectivity and Alienation
Social Metabolism, Contradictions and Rifts, and Ecological Crises
Social Justice and the Natural Laws of Ethics and Ecology

PART III:      STRUCTURES OF DEMOCRACY, ECONOMY, AND JUSTICE
IN MARX

Chapter 6:    Distributive Justice:
Justice of Consumption, Economic Redistribution,
and Social Production

Labor, Nature, and Society in the Gotha Program
Equality, Fair Distribution, and the Public Expenses of Production
Distribution, Fairness, and the Means of Social Consumption
Socialism, Self-Realization, and Human Need
Critique of Reformist and Vulgar Socialism – Happiness without Meaning

Chapter 7:    Political Justice:
Ethics and the Good Life of Democratic Socialism

Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune of 1871
Dismantling the Old State and Rise of Political Democracy in the Commune
Organization of Labor and Economic Democracy
Declaration to the French People and the Social Programmes of the Commune
Marx, Lincoln, and the Emancipation from Racial and Wage Slavery

Chapter 8:    Economic Justice:
Ethics, Production, and the Critique of Chrematistics
and Political Economy

Commodities, Exchange, and the Labor Theory of Value
Labor Power, Surplus Value, and the Alienation of Chrematistic Production
Natural Law of Contradictions, Crises, and Capital
Natural Law of Justice and Natural Law of Value

Notes

Index

Bibliography