Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1986
Publisher
John Hopkins University Press
Abstract
An interesting controversy has recently been provoked by Allen Wood. He argues that capitalism, for Marx, "cannot be faulted as far as justice is concerned." For Marx, the concept of justice belonging to any society is rooted in, grows out of, and expresses that particular society's mode of production. Justice is not a standard by which human reason in the abstract measures actions or institutions--there is no eternal, unchanging norm of justice. Each social epoch gives rise to its own standard; each generally lives up to it; and each must be measured by this standard alone. Thus, in Wood's view, capitalism is perfectly just for Marx.1
Recommended Citation
Kain, P. J. "Marx, Justice, and the Dialectic Method," Journal of the History of Philosophy, 24 (1986): 523-46. http://muse.jhu.edu/article/226740/pdf
