Means, End, Violence

While the traditional criteria of Theory include Truth and Validity, those of Practice include Goodness and Justice. However, if in Marx-Engels' privileging of Practice over Theory there is any attention to those values, it is not explicit. So, instead, Trotsky's version of Marxist Morality might be taken as definitive for the doctrine. Now, three important theses that he presents in 'Their Morals and Ours' are: 1. "A means can be justified only by its end"; 2. "The end in its turn needs to be justified"; and 3. "The end is justified if it leads to the abolition of the power of man over man". Furthermore, by 'justification' he means 'is governed by the values of'. Hence, it follows that 4. "Not all means are permissible", i. e. that any means that involves the power of man over man is not permissible. In other words, though he expresses it long-windedly, he does not endorse any violence in Revolution that is not a mode of self-defense. Whether or not Marx-Engels would concur with this version of a Marxist Morality can only be speculated about.