Marx & the Ancients. Classical Ethics, Social Justice and 19th
Century Political Economy, by George E. McCarthy. Savage, MD:
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1990. 342pp.
Martha E. Gimenez
At a time when both the right and the empiricist/idealist
left celebrate the presumed obsolescence of Marx's thought, the
publication of this book is a welcome relief. This examination
of the relevance of ancient philosophy for understanding the
significance of Marx's work is a timely and useful intervention
in the debate about whether or not Marx had a theory of ethics
and a theory of social justice. The author is critical of the
dominant readings of Marx in North America because, he argues,
they are framed by the concerns of positivist social science and
methodological individualism which make it impossible to grasp
the significance of Marx's refusal to separate ethics from
science and his grounding of ethics in a metaethics (i.e., in the
historical conditions for the possibility of moral behavior). The
author's main thesis is that if Marx's work is read taking into
account its roots in ancient philosophy and German idealism, it
will be give its due as what it really is, a comprehensive theory
of ethics and social justice rather than a contribution to
sociology and political economy. This is a controversial thesis,
as the author argues that the importance of ancient philosophy
for reaching this interpretation of Marx's work can be grasped
"...only when the scientific status of Marx's writings is
undermined" (p. 57). Many sociologists would disagree with the
author in this respect and would argue that Marx's analysis of
capitalism is both scientific (in a non-empiricist, nonpositivist
way) and critical at the same time. But appreciation
of this text for demonstrating the relevance of Marx's work for
the development of conceptions of democracy, human freedom, human
self-realization and social justice is not contingent on the
acceptance of his main thesis. At this time, when all over the
world democracy and the capitalist "free market" are treated as
synonymous, and it is assumed that opening countries to the
ravages of unchecked market forces will automatically usher in
the benefit of democracy for their citizens, this timely book
calls attention both to the real limits capitalism imposes upon
democracy, social justice and human freedom, and to the
unrealized possibilities Marx envisioned through his critical
appropriation of ancient philosophy.
This book is clearly written and well organized, thus even
those without a background in philosophy and political economy
will be able to follow the author's complex arguments without
difficulties. This book will be very helpful to philosophers
concerned with ethics and social justice and will challenge those
who do not understand the dialectical unity between Marx's
critique of bourgeois morality and justice (which can be used to
argue that Marx lacks a theory of ethics and social justice) with
his trenchant criticism of bourgeois society (which rests,
precisely, upon such theory) and conclude that Marx offers no
guidance in those respects. In fact, the author argues, Marx's
theory of social ethics is extremely rich and includes the
following elements: theories of freedom, self-realization,
fetishism, human emancipation, democracy, needs, distributive
justice, rights, and economic exploitation (pp.252-253).
Sociologists interested in political theory, political sociology,
and in current processes of democratization in Latin America and
Eastern Europe, will find this book an excellent source of
theoretical insights most relevant for empirical research and
political critique.
Department of Sociology
University of Colorado at Boulder