Morality versus Ethical Substance

Author(s): Fredric Jameson

Source: Social Text, No. 8 (Winter, 1983-1984), pp. 151-154
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466328 .
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VersusEthicalSubstance
Morality
FREDRIC JAMESON

this same Hegelian distinctionis underscoredin Alisdair

Not unsurprisingly,
MacIntyre'srecentAfterVirtue,in suchremarksas thefollowing:"A moralphilosophy... characteristically
presupposes a sociology. For every moral philosophy
offersexplicitly
or implicitly
at leasta partialconceptualanalysisof the relationship
of an agentto his or her reasons,motives,intentionsand actions,and in so doing
generallypresupposessome claimthattheseconceptsare embodiedor at leastcan be
in thereal social world" (22). MacIntyre'sis farand away the most importantand
of thequestionof theethicalin recentyears,a book
themostbrilliantreformulation
on thesubjectmustnecessarilycome to terms.It proposes
withwhichanystatement
a returnto theclassicalAristotelianconceptionof the virtues,whichhe understands
as beinginseparablefroma realizedcommunityor polis in whichthose virtuescorrespondto real social practicesand not to eitherunrealizableimperativesor rulesor
to Stoic repressions.The move is thereforethe Hegelian one in which individual
conceptionsof moralityare dissolvedin a visionof collectiveethicalsubstance;and
indeedforMacIntyretheone greatdeficiencyof Aristotlefromany modernstandas such, of the conceptof
pointis theabsence fromclassicalthoughtof historicity
thehistorical.This is not somepersonalweaknessof Aristotlehimself,however,but
an inevitableconsequenceof the social formationor mode of productionin which
Aristotlethought,and in thishis designationof the structurallimitsof Aristotle's
philosophyis at one withMarx's analogous remarksin Capital, Vol. I. MacIntyre's
is thereforea Hegelian Aristotelianism,
and finallya Marxianone, insofaras Marx
in
book
the
richestultimatesource for MacIntyre's
this
constitutes
everywhere
visionof historyand of social life.
Indeed, wereone to wishto appropriateAfterVirtuefortheMarxian tradition,
it would be enoughto point out thatthe firstsectionof thisbook offersthe most
probingand devastatinganalysisof the reificationof moralcategoriesundercapital
whichwe possess. The conceptualadvesariesaddressedby MacIntyre-most notably, utilitarianism-areby him explicitlylinkedto the liberalindividualismof the
marketsystem(as are a numberof his seemingallies in the whole neo-conservative
or radical right"returnto virtue").
We can also learn somethingfromMacIntyre'sdiscussionof the collectiveor
social basis of Aristotelianethicsin thepolis itself;I am thinkingin particularof his
demonstration
thatfortheGreeksgenerallyand forAristotlein particular,the virtues are not rules,commandmentsor taboos whichone enforceson one's self by
violence.Rather,theotherway around,the absence of virtue,or the enactmentof
someactiveformof evilor vice,constitutesformsof violencedone to thecommuniFredricJameson
teachesFrenchand thehistory
of consciousness
at theUniversity
of CaliSanta
Cruz.
He
is
from
time
to
a
book
on
fornia,
time,
postmodernism.
writing,
151

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152

Jameson

ofone'scommitment
tothatongoingcollective
ty,a failure
projectwhichessentially
which
the
laws
those
defines
"an
offense
destroys
relationships
against
community:
would
to suchoffenses
makecommonpursuit
ofthegoodpossible....Theresponse
themto havethereby
excluded
haveto be thatoftakingthepersonwhocommitted
of
himself
or herself
fromthecommunity"
(142). Thereis thenherea conception
someofthenewer
thegroupas a collective
project,whichalreadybeginsto suggest
towardswhichourcontemporaries
seemto
aboutgroupformation
waysofthinking
be feeling
theirway-namelythenotionof Utopiaas a stateof seige,as a permaas vividin UrsulaLe Guin'sidea of a
community,
something
nently
beleaguered
it
in
notion
of the"group-in-fusion."
of
as
is
Sartre's
Utopia scarcity
thatMacIntyre
reYet it is precisely
fromthestandpoint
of anti-Utopianism
theNietzschenouncestheactivepartofhisMarxianheritage-aswellas repudiating
an UtopiaoftheUbermensch
andindeedall overtly
andcauses
politicalmovements
is at firstlinguistic
andWittgensteinian:
"Both[NietHeretheargument
generally.
a newmorality,
but
zscheandSartre]sawtheirowntaskas inpartthatof founding
as eachis
inthewritings
of bothitis at thispointthattheirrhetoric-very
different
assertion
fromtheother-becomescloudyand opaque,and metaphorical
replaces
The
and
the
Sartrean
Ubermensch
Existentialist-cum-Marxist
belongin
argument.
thepages of a philosophical
bestiaryratherthanin seriousdiscussion.Bothby
mostpowerful
andcogentinthenegative
areattheirphilosophically
contrast
partof
discussionof
theircritiques"(21). Muchthe sameis impliedin his intermittent
of future
socialistor communist
societiesare
Marxism
itself,wheretheprojections
on thegroundsthat
as emptyof content
and thusas nonphilosophical,
dismissed
whatone cannotsay is notto be considered
thinking.
seemworth
Two featuresof thisrejectionof theUtopianand theprophetic
the
overtones
of
the
which
The
first
has
to
do
with
judgement,
Popperian
noting.
in
visionofthefuture
wantedsomehow
tobe predictive
wouldimplythatMarxism's
some "scientific"sense.MacIntyre
reasserts
theRenaissanceand Machiavellian
thenecessarily
unforeseeable
notionoffortunaas thepredictably
unpredictable,
formof future
context
ofthegreatest
to
interest
events,butthisin a verydifferent
of
features
peoplein the fieldof culturalstudies.For one of theotherstriking
of contempobookis oneofthenewestand mostprofound
tendencies
MacIntyre's
ingeneral,
of narrative
itselfas a
namelytheincreasing
foregrounding
rarythought
also
of
human
instance
fundamental
argued
understanding
(something dramatically
on storytelling
is ofcoursea
Theinsistence
inPaul Ricoeur'srecentTempsetr&cit).
as it does a fundaof MacIntyre's
Aristotelianism,
implying
component
significant
ofa lifeanditssocialrolesandpossitheintelligibility
between
mentalrelationship
oftheincreasing
reification-that
butitis alsoa crucialmoveinhiscritique
bilities;
ethicalcategories.
is, de-narrativization-of
contemporary
is thatitrecapitTheotherpointtobe madeaboutMacIntyre's
anti-Utopianism
ofUtopian
the
Marxism
ulatesoneofthegreatdebateswithin
itself,
namely critique
at theclimacsocialism."Theyhaveno idealstorealize,"criedMarxoftheworkers
tic momentof his address on the Paris Commune; rather,theirtask consistedin
uncoveringand revealingthe new formsof cooperativeand collectivesocial relationshipsthathad alreadybegun to emergewithinthe intersticesof the capitalist

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Morality& Ethics

153

mode of production.For Marx also, then,socialismis a matterof alreadyexistent

tendencieswithinour world,ratherthanof emptyvisionsof thefutureto be realized
on some mode of an ethicalimperative(a Kantian positioninto which,as is well
known,the Second Internationaltendedto lapse).
MacIntyre'scall fora returnto theAristotelianvirtuescan thus,as he is onlytoo
keenlyaware,be subjectedto thesame objectionshe raisesto Marxismas a political
movement:namely,whetherfromwithincaptitalit is possibleto regeneratea lifeof
social groups,a concretesocial fabric,whichon his own accountis inseparablefrom
the practiceof those virtues.
His response,paradoxicallyand eveyironically(giventhetone and stanceof his
book as a whole),entailsa kindof enclavetheoryveryconsistentwiththeincreasing
of the late 60s and
characteristic
preoccupationwithsmall group or micro-politics
of the virbureaucratic
individualism
"Within
the
culture
of
conceptions
beyond.
tues become marginaland the traditionof the virtuesremainscentralonly in the
livesof social groupswhoseexistenceis on themarginsof thecentralculture"(209).
Even to therhetoricof "marginality,"thisis a ratherastonishingstatementto find
in a work whose thrustwill generallybe identifiedas conservative.It is however
altogetherlogical in MacIntyre'sframework,since he mustbe able to identifystill
thepolis sufficiently
fortheirpracticeof the
survivingsocial groupsapproximating
virtuesto be concreteratherthanprojectingideal and emptymoralimperatives.The
betweenMacIntyre'senclavesand thoseof 60s radicalismlies not in
basic difference
the concept,but in the contentof those enclavesthemselves:althoughethnicand
thatMacIntyre'scentral
are noted(see p. 234), itis significant
religiouscommunities
is drawnfromtheworkof the"last Aristotelian,"namelyJane
symbolicillustration
Austen,in whose novelsmarriagecomes to figurethe last space of the older polis:
householdsof Highburyand MansfieldPark have to serveas surro"the restricted
and the medievalkingdom" (224).
gates forthe Greekcity-states
The entirecomplexargumentof After Virtuewould have to be ignoredor misread forus to see in thisemblematicevocationof thehearthyetanothersymptomof
however,is surely
bourgeois"privatization."Thatitis a symptomof de-politization,
undeniable. The other argumentmusteredagainst historicalmaterialismis not,
indeed,thelatter'semptyUtopianism,but ratheritsincreasinglack of any kind of
Utopian politics: "as Marxistsorganizeand move towardspower theyalways do
and have becomeWeberiansin substance,evenif theyremainMarxistsin rhetoric"
(103)-it is a tellingreproach,but one whichassumesthatMarxismhas in itselfno
further
possibilitiesof development.But Marxismis heremerelythe markerforall
contemporarypolitical movements,a sign for the more general absence of any
"tolerable alternativeset of political and economic structureswhich could be
broughtinto place to replace the structuresof advanced capitalism.For I...not
onlytake it thatMarxismis exhaustedas a politicaltradition,a claim borne out by
thealmostindefinitely
numerousand conflicting
rangeof politicalallegianceswhich
now carryMarxistbanners-this does not at all implythatMarxismis not stillone
of therichestsourcesof ideas about modernsociety-but I believethatthisexhaustionis sharedbyeveryotherpoliticaltraditionwithinour culture"(244). It wouldbe
a mistaketo thinkthat such discouragementdoes not also characterizethe Left

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Jameson

154

today, with its flirtationswith various post-Marxismsand its returnto a whole

varietyof Utopian speculations(in thissense,the whole so-called"crisis of Marxism" is in realitya crisisof Leninism,and it is not a crisisin Marxian"science" but
ratherin Marxist "ideology," which has everywheresingularlyabandoned any
attemptto projectpoliticallyand sociallygrippingvisionsof a radicallydifferent
future).
JaneAusten aside, however,MacIntyrealso turnsout to be just as Utopian as
therestof us. For in hisclosinglines,yetanothervisionof thefutureis offered,one
of a newdarkages duringwhichgroupsof people setaboutto construct"new forms
of communitywithinwhichthemorallifecould be sustainedso thatboth morality
and civilitymightsurvivethecomingages of barbarismand darkness.... This time
howeverthebarbariansare notwaitingbeyondthe frontiers;
theyhave alreadybeen
governingus forsome time.And it is our lack of consciousnessof thisthatconstitutespart of our predicament.We are waitingnot fora Godot, but foranotherdoubtlessverydifferent-St.Benedict"(245). To whichone is temptedto add, however,that such a St. Benedict,who will undoubtedlyhave studiedthe firststammeringpremonitionand prophecyof his role in an ancienttextcalled After Virtue,
willnecessarilyby thatbook be sentback to read Marx fullyas much as Aristotle.

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