p The link between morality and knowledge was brought to light long ago by bourgeois ethical thinking. However, bourgeois ethical thinking failed to show the nature of this link and whether all knowledge leads to moral improvement and whether every moral advance consolidates the strength of the intellect.
p One of the most important and difficult tasks of the socialist revolution is to turn knowledge into a means of achieving moral improvement, to link knowledge up with morality and subordinate them to the purpose of promoting man’s harmonious development. This unity is attained through work, through practical activity in building the new society. Work alone can form a bridge between knowledge and morality and create the possibility of utilising scientific knowledge to consolidate lofty communist ideals.
p Knowledge serves as a compass for man’s behaviour in his day-to-day life. At the same time, the lofty principles 319 of communist morality demand that man should acquire the knowledge that enables mankind to move forward and teach him how to use this knowledge in order to benefit and not harm people. This is precisely where the unity between knowledge and morality manifests itself.
p The striving to perform an exploit and do everything possible for the triumph of the new cause is firmly becoming part of the day-to-day life of Soviet people. This is seen in the achievements of Soviet space explorers, builders, scientists, workers and collective farmers.
p Naturally, substantial knowledge was needed to arrive at these achievements. However, knowledge alone is not enough. An exploit is a practical matter and involves labour, which in its turn, presupposes not only knowledge but also the ability to apply this knowledge. An exploit may thus be described as being an alloy consisting of labour, knowledge and morals.
p Some people hold that there are no grounds for speaking of unity between knowledge and morality. Indeed, these people argue, is there a scientific criterion of the morality of an action?
p Outwardly, progress in morals may, naturally, be not as striking and effective as progress in science. But does this detract from the “might and merit" of the simple principles of lofty morality that working people had evolved in the course of centuries of struggle against oppression and moral vices? Has socialism, which has absorbed these simple moral standards, not established new principles of morality, which underlie the life and dignity of Soviet people? Has Marxism not formulated the objective, scientific criterion that makes it possible to weigh people’s actions and distinguish between good and evil? “ Communist morality,” Lenin wrote, “is based on the struggle for the consolidation and completion of communism.” [319•* Good is what helps mankind to move forward to the new society. Communist morality is indissolubly linked up with and forms the basis of education. Lenin exhorted young people to acquire knowledge not as a result of boredom, not for their own satisfaction but for the sake of the new society and the consolidation of the principles of communist 320 morality. A genuine Communist is a highly educated person with lofty morals. Lenin wrote: “The entire purpose of training, educating and teaching the youth of today should be to imbue them with communist ethics.” [320•*
p While underestimating morality, some people overestimate knowledge, particularly knowledge of mathematics. “Mathematics,” they write, “imbues man with honesty more than ethics does.” Or: “Hard and fast conclusions about the behaviour of people issue from contemporary views about the organisation of the Universe and about the nature of man.” Yet it is well known that people holding the same views about the Universe and nature often follow antipodal moral principles. The reason for this is that the force of the impact of science (we have in mind the natural sciences which do not directly influence morals) on morality depends on the class affiliation of the person concerned on his world outlook. Marxist science is precisely the world outlook that shows man how to use knowledge: for evil or for the good of men.
p Overestimation of knowledge to the detriment of morality inflicts grave harm on education. However, similar harm is caused by underestimating the role of knowledge in man’s ethical improvement, i.e., by the belief that if man is immoral knowledge will not help him to improve. One of the personalities in Anton Chekhov’s play Ivanov argued that if a mediocre rascal is armed with culture and science he will become a brilliant rascal. There is a black sheep in every flock, and in Soviet society, too, there are people who do not profit by education. Essentially these black sheep are well-educated but they isolate themselves from their surroundings and wish to see nothing except their own knowledge. These people consider that society’s ethical demands of them are unfounded. They feel that if they have mastered say, physics, chemistry or mathematics and, on top of that, love music, the theatre and literature, society must remain satisfied with their erudition and make no moral demands of them. Knowledge, it must be emphasised, does not release a person from moral responsibility.
One of the great objectives of communist education is to achieve unity between knowledge and morality.