SOURCE: A review of The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought, in Journal of Religion, Vol. 72, No. 4, October, 1992, pp. 618-9.

In the following review, Bancroft offers a mixed assessment of The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought, finding weakness in West's Marxist perspective and arguments.

Despite its title, [The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought] Cornel West’s book does not simply focus on Marx’s ethics. West does emphasize Marx’s commitment to the values of democracy, individuality, and freedom. But his broader treatment of Marx’s ethics is part of the book’s central argument concerning the nature of Marx’s thought as a whole. The argument is that Marx’s “radical historicism” distinguishes him from his followers in that Marx alone utterly rejects the quest for philosophic certainty. West says Marx grounds objectivity, both scientific and ethical, in “contingent, dynamic, community-specific agreements” and/or “sensitivity … toward pressing [social...