Some Thoughts on Trotsky's Their Morals and Ours

By:  Chandra Kumar (York, Canada)

In this talk I will look back at Trotsky's polemicalTheir Morals and Ours (1938) with a view to assessing its contemporary relevance. Though polemical and full of dogmatic-sounding assertions, there are also some clear and thought-provoking arguments in Trotsky's essay that might be
of interest not only to moral and political philosophers but to anyone who wants to attain a reflective understanding of how ideology works in class society, and how morality (or moral codes) in such socieities (our socieities) can have an ideological character. Ultimately, what I want to discuss, and ask, is whether a coherent, plausible, and distinctively Marxist point of view on morality can be salvaged from the positions Trotsky defends.