Society as its Goal: Karl Marx and Ethical Life

This thesis argues that Karl Marx’s immanent critique of capital provides a conception of ethical life. My interpretation situates Marx within a shared tradition of ethical inquiry, placing him in close dialogue with Aristotle and Hegel. The conception of ethical life found in these three thinkers challenges the prominent notion of ethics as individual duties and laws by conceiving ethics as integral to (or inseparable from) political life. Within this tradition, ethical life is understood in terms of mutually recognised modes of understanding underpinned by rational social organisation. This thesis reconstructs Marx’s social thought by putting his social ontology and concept of value at the centre of his conception of ethics.