MEANS AND ENDS
403
end, the liberation of mankind, but from another outside source. The
professed end-the end-in-view-the liberation of mankind, is thus sub–
ordinated to the class struggle as the means by which it is to be attained.
Instead of
interdependence
of means and end, the end is dependent
upon the means but the means are not derived from the end. Since the
class struggle is regarded as the
only
means that will reach the end, and
since the view that it is the only means is reached deductively and not by
an inductive examination of the means-consequences in their inter–
dependence, the means, the class struggle, does not need to be .critically
examined with respect to its actual objective consequences.
It
is auto–
matically absolved from all need for critical examination.
If
we are not
back in the position that the
end-in-view
(as distinct from objective
consequences) justifies the use of any means in line with the class
struggle and that it justifies the neglect of all other means, I fail to
understand the logic of Mr. Trotsky's position.
The position that I have indicated as that of genuine interdependence
of means and ends does not automatically rule out class struggle as one
means for attaining the end. But it does rule out the deductive method
of arriving at it as a means, to say nothing of its being the
only
means.
The selection of class struggle as a means has to be justified, on the
ground of the interdependence of means and end, by an examination of
actual consequences of its use, not deductively. Historical considerations
are certainly relevant to this examination. But the assumption of a
fixed
law
of social development is not relevant.
It
is as if a biologist or a
physician were to assert that a certain law of biology which he accepts
is so related to the end of health that the means of arriving at health
-and the only means--can be deduced from it, so that no further
examination of biological phenomena is needed. The whole case is
prejudged.
It is one thing to say that class struggle is a means of attaining
the end of the liberation of mankind. It is a radically different thing to
say that there is an absolute
law
of class struggle which determines the
means to be used. For if it determines the means, it also determines the
end-the actual consequences, and upon the principle of genuine inter–
dependence of means and end it is arbitrary and subjective to say that that
consequence will be the liberation of mankind. The liberation of mankind
is the end to be striven for. In any legitimate sense of "moral," it
is a moral end. No scientific law can determine a moral end save by
deserting the principle of interdependence of means and end. A Marxian
may sincerely believe that class struggle is
the
law of social development.
But quite aside from the fact that the belief closes the doors to further
