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ETHICS AND THE ‘TRULY HUMAN’ SOCIETY
| Content Provider | Scilit |
|---|---|
| Author | Kamenka, Eugene |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Description | Book Name: The Ethical Foundations of Marxism (RLE Marxism) |
| Abstract | The parallel is apt, but to regard Marx’s exposure of alienation and his postulation of activities in which it is overcome as the application of artistic or aesthetic ‘criteria’ is completely to miss the point. The parallel is apt because artists, qua artists, do habitually display freedom from alienation in their artistic activity. Their activity is not sub ordinated to ends outside the activity. In so far as their motives are artistic, they are not working for reward, or fame, or any other nonartistic end. They are working for the sake of the activity itself. They create, or seek to create, according to the laws of art, not according to laws dictated from outside the activity by non-artistic or anti-artistic motives and ends. There is no significant sense in which artistic activity overcomes-as Marx seems to think-the distinction between man and the objects on which he is working. The sculptor who creates a statue does not thereby obliterate the distinction between man and bronze. He may bruise his toe or break his neck on the statue the fol lowing morning. He may discover in it things he did not know were there; he may be influenced by it as the material was moulded by him. But it is true that in the process of production he and his material become part of a single process; that the exchanges between him and no the material on which he is working come to him not as externally imposed means to a different end, but as part of the very activity which is his ‘end’. The fact that this activity is not merely an activity ‘governed’ by aesthetic ‘criteria’, but is an activity displaying ethical qualities, an activity which is not merely artistic but also good, comes out in the relations it creates for him with other artists. In so far as he is an artist, he sees other artists not as hostile competitors, but as men whose work assists and inspires his work, whose artistic motives kindled and continue to strengthen his. |
| Related Links | https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2014-0-38433-0&isbn=9781315715391&doi=10.4324/9781315715391-25&format=pdf |
| Ending Page | 142 |
| Page Count | 9 |
| Starting Page | 134 |
| DOI | 10.4324/9781315715391-25 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| Publisher Date | 2015-04-17 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Book Name: The Ethical Foundations of Marxism (rle Marxism) Cultural Studies Aesthetic Artistic Activity Artistic Motives Alienation Distinction Parallel Ethical |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Chapter |
