Reddit mentions of Marxist Ethics: A Short Exposition

I don't think there is a need to "add" ethics/morality to Marxism, as it does have its own type of "ethics", though it is somewhat alien (and hostile) to the liberal mind. I don't feel like the concept of ethics has been ignored or "completely dismissed" by Marxists, but the thing people commonly think of as "ethics", that is a set of guidelines that are somehow detached from material reality or hold true regardless of changing circumstances societies --that are based around decontextualized hyptheticals, individualism (rehashings of the the "robinson crusoe" fantasy of bourgeois economists are found in many ethical philosophers') etc-- is certainly and necessarily dismissed as "ideological rubbish" by Marx and Marxists. Marxist "ethics" are concerned with not only social/historical context but with practical matters, filling needs (in practice, as opposed to "giving rights" which is the bourgeois focus), and a "class-based" morality. One of the things that distinguishes Marxist ethics is that Marxists realize that questions of what the individual ought to do (especially in more "personal" type situations) is not the paramount issue of ethical thought so Marxism will appear to some to "dismiss" ethics if that is what they see "ethics" as being.

I'm reminded of the old canard "Marxists can't account for human nature!". What the people parroting this old platitude don't realize is that Marxism does indeed "account" for it -- by explaining how the "nature" of humans is historically and socially determined - an "ensemble of social relations" as Marx puts it. Just like with individualist ethics, Marxism in this case is viewed as "dismissing" something by people who see "human nature" as somehow an eternal/self-evident truth.

I wish I had time to write a more in-depth comment -- if you have further questions ask and I'll try to respond later or maybe someone else will. Anyway, the book you're looking for is "Marxist Ethics" by William H. Truitt. I can't find a free version, but at least it's not prohibitively priced like many works on Marxism. It does not seek to "contribute" to or "modify" Marxism, but rather to explain Marxist "ethics" and how they differ from liberal "ethics" and the ethics of mainstream/classical philosophy. The work is flawed in some ways -- the author focuses very heavily on Marx and Engels and gives pretty spotty and poor analysis of other major Marxist thinkers but it's a very good starting point and explains core concepts and puts them in place with liberal thought quite well. I can't think of another "contemporary" work that would be better though I haven't read too much else by contemporary authors on the subject.