Marxism and the Spirit of Socialism: Cultural Origins of Anti-capitalism (1982)

Ignazio Silone, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, has written strikingly about the role of moral commitment in radical theory. ‘The more Socialist theories claim to be “scientifi c”’, he suggests, ‘the more transitory they are; but Socialist values are permanent. The distinction between theories and values is not suffi ciently recognized, but it is fundamental. On a group of theories one can found a school; but on a group of values one can found a culture, a civilization, a new way of living together among men.’ When Silone gave up his Marxism in the 1930s, he became a devout Christian, but he remained an ardent socialist throughout his life. The juxtaposition of these faiths – Marxism, Christianity, and socialism – is what this essay is all about. That Marxism contains signifi cant value commitments does not in any way differentiate it from other general social scientifi c theories. Every theory has ideological dimensions, certain a priori commitments which allow it to evaluate, in the moral terms of ‘ought’, the empirical facts which record what the world ‘is’. To miss this necessary elision of facts and values, as Raymond Aron does when he condemns Marxism as a ‘fallacious myth’ which – in contrast to sociology – intercedes between the ‘real and ideal’, is to take the easy way out. What is unique about Marx’s theory is not that it contains values but how it does so. Marx raised the art of ideologizing to a level of grandeur and profundity it has never attained since. Marx was not just a scientist but the creator of an enormous social and spiritual force. He founded an intellectual