Unity in Marx Towards a Methodological Reconstruction

Reconstruction A Das Gupta This article is a pure theoretical exercise involving a philosophical reconstruction of Marxism which has no direct bearing on the events that happened in the former communist world. Given its philosophical thrust it tries to understand the internal structure of the Marxian corpus of thought. To this effect it identifies the two mutually incompatible elements coexisting in Marx. The fact/value dichotomy or the dichotomy between science and morality is the expression of this incompatibility. Historically the attempts to resolve this dichotomy have by and large failed because of their onesided and dogmatic approach. These approaches seek to resolve this conflict by eliminating one in favour of the other and thereby they commit what may be described as either/or fallacy. These approaches grossly distort the complex conceptual system that Marxism represents. As against this, this article attempts to show that the resolution offact/value dichotomy is possible by reconstructing Marx's concept of science on the one hand and his concept of morality on the other.