Book excerpt: This book reveals Marx’s moral philosophy and analyzes its nature. The author shows that there is an underlying system of ethics which runs the length and breadth of Marx’s thought. The book begins by discussing the methodological side of Marx’s ethics showing how Marx’s criticism of conventional morality and his views on historical materialism, determinism and ideology are compatible with having an ideological system of his own. In the light of contemporary social, moral and political philosophy the insights and defects of Marx’s major ethical themes are discussed.