« Taiwan Journal of Political Science NO.93Publish: 2022/09

Marx’s (and Engel’s) Critiques of Utopian Socialism: As a Method of Political Philosophy

Author: Kai-li Cheng

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This paper adopts Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels’s (1820- 1895) critiques of utopian socialism to formulate a Marxian normative political philosophy; that is, the way that Marx or Marxists should have preferred to engage normative political philosophy. This paper, therefore, is divided into two major parts: the first part explains and clarifies what Marx and Engels’s critiques of utopian socialism are, and the second part takes their critiques of utopian socialism as a critical reference point to define Marxian political philosophy. After introducing the four main conceptual distinctions in the analytical tradition of the methodology of contemporary political philosophy, I explain why their critiques can be understood as having preferences for certain positions toward the methodology of normative political philosophy. Accordingly, when we locate the Marxian critique of utopian socialism within the four conceptual distinctions, we are able to outline the methodology of Marxian political philosophy.

Keywords:Karl Marx、Methodology of Political Philosophy、Political Moralism、Practice-dependent Principles、Utopian Socialism