Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
- Cambridge Handbooks in Anthropology
- The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Intellectual Sources and Disciplinary Engagements
- Part II Aspects of Ethical Agency
- Part III Media and Modes of Ethical Practice
- Part IV Intimate and Everyday Life
- Part V Institutional Life
- 29 Modern Capitalism and Ethical Plurality
- 30 The Ethics of Commerce and Trade
- 31 Activism and Political Organization
- 32 Philanthropy
- 33 Science
- 34 Communist Morality under Socialism
- Index
- References
34 - Communist Morality under Socialism
from Part V - Institutional Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2023
By
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
- Cambridge Handbooks in Anthropology
- The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Intellectual Sources and Disciplinary Engagements
- Part II Aspects of Ethical Agency
- Part III Media and Modes of Ethical Practice
- Part IV Intimate and Everyday Life
- Part V Institutional Life
- 29 Modern Capitalism and Ethical Plurality
- 30 The Ethics of Commerce and Trade
- 31 Activism and Political Organization
- 32 Philanthropy
- 33 Science
- 34 Communist Morality under Socialism
- Index
- References
Summary
Communist morality was created by revolutionary leaders and thinkers in the early twentieth century to serve the greater goal of building communism in the entire world and was regarded by both the communists and the Western left-wing as antithetical to the corrupt morality of capitalist societies. It is by nature a statist ethical system that always prioritizes the interests of the state and relies on state ownership of the means of production to enforce its moral principles. This essay starts with the moral interiority of socialist subjects, focussing on the transformative impact of communist morality on individuals and their motivations to accept or prescribe the newly imposed ethics by the state. Then it closely examines the official discourses of communist morality in the former Soviet Union and China and their moral practices through the social engineering project of creating the socialist ‘New Person’. The concluding section argues that the emphasis on collective identity and the centrality of institutional sociality determine the relevance of communist morality in the world today.
Keywords
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics , pp. 871 - 896Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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