Part 4I.1: Ethical Excavations (Marxism - Independent Exploration)

By the end of Part 4, you should be able to:

• Excavate existing Marxist patterns in your personal reasoning

• Analyze origins and development of your economic structure-focused thinking

• Navigate tensions between Marxist and other reasoning approaches

• Apply archaeological analysis method to discover rather than learn framework concepts

• Integrate Marxist insights into your ongoing conflict map through citations and addenda

Excavate Existing Marxist Patterns in Personal Reasoning

Students will identify where class consciousness, systemic analysis, and economic structure-focused thinking already appears in their ethical decision-making.

Evidence of Learning:

• Recognizes existing awareness of economic power structures and class dynamics rather than individual moral failings

• Identifies personal sensitivity to exploitation, commodification, and structural inequality

• Discovers unconscious systemic vs. individual responsibility considerations in decision-making patterns

• Maps where class-based reasoning conflicts with individualistic or merit-based approaches

Analyze Origins and Development of Marxist Thinking

Students will trace how their economic structure-focused reasoning patterns developed through personal experience and cultural influences.

Evidence of Learning:

• Connects class consciousness patterns to work experiences, economic struggles, or formative encounters with inequality

• Explains how focus on systemic analysis might have been shaped by personal history

• Identifies sources of their approach to understanding power through economic relations

• Recognizes environmental or experiential factors that encouraged attention to structural rather than individual explanations

Navigate Tensions Between Marxist and Other Reasoning Patterns

Students will explore conflicts between systemic analysis thinking and individual responsibility, merit-based, or reform-focused approaches in their reasoning.

Evidence of Learning:

• Identifies specific conflicts between structural critique and personal accountability or individual choice

• Explores tensions between revolutionary transformation and gradual reform approaches

• Recognizes where Marxist logic conflicts with social contract negotiations or virtue ethics character focus

• Analyzes situations where class analysis feels reductive or dismissive of other forms of oppression

Apply Self-Directed Archaeological Analysis Method to Philosophical Framework

Students will independently design and conduct excavation of Marxist concepts in their reasoning, with minimal external scaffolding.

Evidence of Learning:

• Takes initiative in developing personalized approach to Marxist excavation based on conflict map needs

• Creates original prompts and questions for AI-guided analysis rather than following provided templates

• Engages in self-directed discovery with greater autonomy over the investigation process

• Demonstrates independent assessment of whether Marxist analysis adds value to their ethical reasoning

Integrate Marxist Analysis into Ongoing Conflict Map (Optional)

Students may choose to add Marxist insights to their developing understanding of personal ethical complexity if the framework proves relevant to their dilemma.

Evidence of Learning:

• Makes informed decision about whether Marxist analysis warrants inclusion in conflict map

• Creates Marxist addendum only if it reveals significant patterns or tensions

• Adds citations to existing conflict map if class-based reasoning proves relevant

• Builds cumulative analysis that selectively integrates frameworks based on personal relevance

• Brendan Shea. "Chapter 7: Marxism—Revolutionary Ethics and Social Change." Ethical Explorations: Moral Dilemmas in a Universe of Possibilities. https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/ethicalexplorations/front-matter/introduction/. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Clayn D. Lambert